Hundreds of migrants are pouring into Britain from Belgium on a new front in the small-boats crisis, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Smugglers are launching vessels from beaches in Flanders as the French clamp down on them under British government pressure.
The migrants are using free buses that shuttle them along the coast to move from the so-called Jungle refugee camps in France to Belgium, where they are then picked up to cross the Channel.
An unprecedented five boats left three Belgian beaches last Saturday carrying more than 200 migrants. They made it to Dover hours later, the MoS understands.
The Belgian arrivals made up almost half the total 602 migrants who were escorted into the Kent port on Saturday by Border Force.
A senior Belgian politician warned last night that thousands of migrants would arrive in the UK on small boats from Flanders if smugglers continue to switch operations there at the same rate, and called for the France/Belgium border to be closed temporarily to stop the migrants crossing.
In an exclusive interview with The Mail on Sunday, Carl Decaluwe, governor of West Flanders, said he had never seen this many boats being launched from the Belgian beaches.
Mr Decaluwe, governor for 15 years, said 29 migrant boats carrying as many as 80 migrants per vessel were launched from beaches since January.
Carl Decaluwe, governor of West Flanders, said he had never seen this many boats being launched from the Belgian beaches
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood signed the three-year agreement with France on Thursday to pay £662million to support beach patrols as part of efforts to drive down the number of arrivals
He also criticised the renewal of the long-running agreement this week under which Britain sends money to France to stop small boats. He said the British get nothing out of the deal, with record numbers of crossings year on year.
More than a dozen migrants crossed the Channel yesterday, marking the first small-boat arrivals since the UK renewed the deal.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood signed the three-year agreement with France on Thursday to pay £662million to support beach patrols as part of efforts to drive down the number of arrivals.
It is understood that no boats left for England from Belgian beaches last week due to bad weather. Mr Decaluwe met police chiefs and local mayors on Tuesday as they are expecting a surge leaving for England from today with conditions in the Channel set to improve.
Already, people smugglers have tried to set up camps on the dunes of Belgian beaches, which the police have torn down immediately, fearing West Flanders will soon have sprawling migrant camps like Dunkirk and Calais.
Mr Decaluwe said: ‘If you do nothing, the next day it’s 20 tents, and the next day it’s 100, and then it’s finished. Every time we see camps, we try to clean them.’
Belgian police intelligence shows most migrants who board the dinghies in West Flanders live in the camps in France, but come over to Belgium the night before, with many sleeping in the sand dunes.
The migrants usually take the number 20 free bus from Dunkirk, which brings them to the Belgian town of De Panne, 14 miles north.
MoS reporters last week watched migrants arrive at the bus station in De Panne from Dunkirk. One Afghan migrant told us: ‘Yeah, this bus is always used by migrants.’
It’s estimated the distance by boat from De Panne to Dover is around 56 miles, compared to the over-20-mile crossing from Calais.
