More than 1,100 migrants have crossed to Britain in small boats over the past four days, with further arrivals expected as traffickers take advantage of the current heatwave.
Home Office data showed 392 people arrived on Thursday, adding to the 710 who made the journey on Monday.
That lifted the four-day total to 1,102 and took the number of crossings recorded this year beyond 10,000.
On Friday morning, several more dinghies carrying hundreds of migrants were seen leaving the beaches at Wissant, south-west of Calais.
With light winds forecast to continue, the overall figure is likely to climb further over the weekend and into much of next week.
As a result, the UK may be heading into one of its longest uninterrupted stretches of small boat arrivals so far in 2025.
French police officers stood by and watched some of Friday’s departures from the beach at Wissant, with some filming migrants on their mobile phones.
There were distressing scenes as migrants risked their lives to clamber aboard dangerously-overloaded dinghies.
One woman became distressed as she attempted to reach an overloaded dinghy bound for the UK, pictured off the coast of Wissant, near Calais, early on Friday morning
Migrants struggle to board a traffickers’ dinghy bound for Britain early on Friday, at Wissant beach, south-west of Calais
It came despite a recent shift in tactics by French police in the wake of a new, £660million three-year deal for beach patrols to be funded by the British taxpayer, which was agreed in April.
After years of lobbying by successive UK governments the French have begun intercepting some traffickers’ ‘taxi boats’ – but not all – while they are already in the water.
French officers stood by as migrants set off aboard dinghies to the UK from Wissant beach, near Calais, on Friday morning
Migrants struggle to board one of the overloaded dinghies setting off for the UK from Wissant beach, near Calais, on Friday morning
Last month French police were reported to their country’s human rights watchdog after using a knife to deflate a small boat packed with migrants bound for England.
Dramatic scenes filmed at Oye-Plage, a beach near Calais, on May 3 showed an officer slashing at an inflatable before it collapses.
About 25 young men were forced off the craft and retreated back onto the beach.
Migrants on the overloaded dinghies included infants and children
Migrants carry an inflatable boat into the sea at the beach at Wissant while attempting to cross the English Channel
Migrants arrived at Wissant beach, south-west of Calais, at dawn in an attempt to board smugglers’ dinghies to Britain
Officers who sprinted up to the dinghy were seen wading into shin-depth water but it was unclear from the video whether it was actually afloat.
A spokesman for the Pas-de-Calais gendarmerie said the vessel was actually grounded at the time.
But a spokesman for migrant charity Utopia 56 claimed it was illegal to deflate the dinghy while it was already in the water and put lives in danger.
It filed a report to France’s Defender of Rights – the country’s principal human rights watchdog – about the incident.
There have now been 10,244 small boat migrants reach British shores since the start of this year, not including Friday’s unconfirmed number.
At the same point last year the figure was 17,278.
But this year’s current levels are not far behind the 11,690 seen at this point in 2022, which went on to record an annual high of nearly 46,000.
Earlier this year saw period of sustained windy conditions in the Channel, which may have helped reduce numbers, along with several successes by law enforcement here and on the Continent in disrupting the activities of smuggling gangs.
There have been more tha 200,000 arrivals since the start of the crisis in 2018.
