A laughing toddler in bright yellow wellington boots splashed through puddles outside one of Europe’s largest migrant camps this week, waiting to begin a journey to Britain. The dark-eyed three-year-old was expected to join other children on a dangerous Channel crossing, leaving behind life in a tent at the sprawling, overcrowded camp on the outskirts of Dunkirk.
He is among dozens of children—including a baby—who have either reached Dover or are expected to make the crossing this weekend, as calmer conditions improve the prospects for traffickers’ boats.
Since January, thousands of children have crossed the 21-mile stretch of water. According to figures released to Our News Outlet by Kent County Council this week, at least 2,182 made the journey alone—more than 200 each month.
A small number were reportedly concealed in lorries travelling on ferries, but most made the perilous trip in small boats.
The arrivals are also placing a significant burden on public finances. Home Office figures show that housing and supporting an unaccompanied migrant child costs the taxpayer £143 a night—around £52,000 a year.
If the child in the yellow wellies reaches Britain, supporting him until he turns 18 could cost more than £780,000 over 15 years.
At Dover on Thursday morning, we photographed children who had arrived overnight from France. One baby, kicking tiny feet in white socks, was carried ashore by a Border Force officer. No parent was visible.
I have reported on people-smuggling operations across the Channel for eight years, but I have never seen so many children caught up in them.
A migrant holds a baby on a small boat on a beach in Eccault, France, in August this year. Since January, thousands of child migrants have made the 21-mile crossing, including at least 2,182 who travelled alone—more than 200 a month
Migrant arrivals at Dover, including a child, on October 29, 2026. Unaccompanied children arriving by boat are taken to the Kent Intake Unit, on a hill overlooking the port, where social workers care for them
A group of migrants, including children, head towards a beach in northern France
The situation is particularly alarming because the Dunkirk camp is a filthy, hazardous environment that is unsuitable for children.
Hundreds of people live in dirty blue bell tents supplied by charities, while open fires are lit to provide warmth.
Orange life jackets hang from the surrounding trees. Some are bought at local sports shops, while others are sold at stalls around the camp, allowing migrants to be ready to leave for the coast at short notice.
Although some families were present, with babies held in their mothers’ arms or pushed in prams, many of the boys and girls we saw appeared to be without parents.
The children played in the dirt, kicked footballs and ran around the camp with little apparent purpose.
As we passed, a group of girls who appeared to be about eight or nine years old held out their hands for sweets. People arrive at the camp from Africa, the Middle East and other parts of Europe, including Germany and Sweden, which have stepped up efforts to remove people without legal status.
Many head directly to northern France, drawn by the promise of a place on a traffickers’ boat to Britain.
We first saw the toddler in yellow wellies at about 11am on Wednesday, outside the Dunkirk mega-camp.
Around an hour later, we witnessed about 400 migrants leave the site in three separate groups.
Groups of migrants wait at Gravelines railway station in northern France. Our News Outlet journalist Sue Reid saw thousands of children in France preparing to board traffickers’ boats, either alone or with relatives, amid a growing migration crisis involving Britain
We followed the group that included the boy. They boarded a public yellow bus near the camp, known as Loon-Plage, and travelled several miles to the village of Gravelines.
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From there, the migrants walked to the nearby railway station. By then, the tired child was being carried on a man’s shoulders.
At Gravelines station, the three groups that had left the camp separately converged on the platform while waiting for a train to Calais.
The crowd became so large that people sat, lay down or stood several rows deep. Others who could not fit on the platform spilled onto the gravel at either end. Despite the crush, they boarded the train to Calais and then changed platforms for a service towards Boulogne and its extensive coastline.
We know this because we followed the child in the yellow wellies and his group throughout the day, travelling by car and on foot.
During the journey, members of the gang noticed us and quickly concealed their faces with masks, hoods and scarves to avoid being identified by the Mail’s photographer. One bearded man made an obscene gesture in the street, while another shook his fist as we drove past.
The encounter underlined the secrecy and intimidation surrounding the gangs that organise Channel crossings. Their multimillion-pound criminal networks operate with military efficiency, yet appear to show little regard for the safety of the people they transport.
Children and babies now appear to be an increasingly important part of their market. Our News Outlet has learned that gangs were charging around £1,500 per person for a place on a boat this week, with prices rising as demand increased.
After three weeks of poor weather halted crossings earlier this month, an estimated 4,000 migrants are waiting to leave the Dunkirk camp. It is now described as the European Union’s second-largest illegal settlement, behind one in Puglia, Italy.
Those living there are preparing to cross the Channel and start new lives in Britain. “Demand is so high that it is impossible to negotiate the traffickers’ price down, even for children or babies,” a 24-year-old Afghan man in the camp told me.
“They are hard men. I think there could even be 5,000 people here in Dunkirk, all hoping to reach the UK.”
Under human rights law, children who reach Britain alone must be placed in state care until they turn 18. They may also receive housing and living support for a further seven years, and cannot be deported until they are 25.
That system helps explain why some families waiting in France may be willing to send a child across the Channel alone, hoping the child’s arrival will establish a route to life in Britain.
Earlier this month, a migrant baby was photographed aboard a boat leaving France. A suspected trafficker held the child in one arm while using the other to operate the vessel’s outboard engine as he steered towards England.
A legal case reported by Our News Outlet last year involved two boys, aged six and nine, who arrived in Dover alone by boat from France.
The children were reportedly separated from their parents after a chaotic launch in which their mother and father were left behind in France.
The boys were placed with foster carers in Kent while their parents, supported by refugee charities, sought permission to join them in England.
The case eventually reached the Court of Appeal. The Home Office successfully argued that reuniting the family in Britain, rather than France, could create a dangerous precedent by encouraging parents to send children alone as “anchors” before following them.
After months of legal proceedings, the boys were returned to their parents in Calais.
Children who arrive alone by boat in Dover are taken to the Kent Intake Unit, located on a hill near the port, where they initially receive support from social workers.
Within two days, they are generally placed with foster families around the country, who care for them until adulthood at substantial cost to taxpayers.
The children themselves are not to blame for the situation. They are innocent.
But, as I saw this week, thousands of young people are now waiting in France to board traffickers’ boats—either alone or with their families—adding a new dimension to the migration crisis facing Britain.
