French police blunders mean HALF of the country’s biggest people smuggling ring sending migrants across the Channel are likely to escape justice – as almost 1,000 illegal asylum seekers crossed in small boats on the busiest day of the year

French police blunders could see half of the world’s largest international people smuggling ring send migrants across the Channel to escape justice.

Twenty-two smugglers are being sentenced for the crossing which is estimated to have earned them £5 million and endangered countless lives.

But half of them didn’t show up for the sentencing hearing. Several had run the business from Britain.

Eight of them are feared to have fled the country despite being placed under judicial supervision.

They may even be arranging crossings again and making millions from the illegal trade.

Officials from the Border Police and the Ministry of the Interior are said to be ‘stunned’ by the revelation.

A two-year-old boy was ‘trampled to death’ on an overcrowded boat off the coast of France on Saturday as he tried to cross the Channel.

The details emerged during a sentencing hearing for a series of crossings from Calais to Normandy between 2020 and 2022.

Three members of the gang, mostly Iraqi Kurds, were given a reprieve until March 10, raising fears that they will flee.

A British Border Force source said: ‘This is shocking. It shows that the French do not take this seriously.

‘It’s a shame. These gang members will return to work, making millions and endangering lives.”

The gang was crushed in July 2022 with arrests in Britain, France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.

One even operated it from a French prison. It is estimated that they organized 300 crossings. The suspects face ten years in prison.

According to figures from the Ministry of the Interior, Saturday is said to be the busiest day of the year so far, breaking the previous record set in 2024: on June 18 there were 882 people.

A group of people believed to be migrants are taken from the RNLI Dover Lifeboat to Dover, Kent following a minor boating incident in the Channel on Saturday

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It comes after almost 1,000 migrants crossed the English Channel in small boats on Saturday, the busiest day of the year so far.

A total of 973 migrants crossed the English Channel into Britain in 17 small boats on Saturday – killing four people on the journey.

According to figures from the Ministry of the Interior, it is being called the busiest day of the year so far, breaking the previous record set in 2024: on June 18, there were 882 people.

It comes after a two-year-old boy was ‘trampled to death’ on an overcrowded boat off the coast of France on Saturday while trying to cross the English Channel, the prefect of the Pas-de-Calais region confirmed.

The child was found yesterday morning on a small boat with reportedly nearly 90 migrants crammed on it.

A woman and two men, all believed to be in their 30s, also died while crossing the Channel in a separate incident on Saturday.

Fourteen other migrants picked up on board the rescue boat were taken back to France to be interviewed by border police and a 17-year-old was taken to a hospital in the port city of Boulogne-sur-Mer after suffering burns to his head. legs.

Boulogne-sur-Mer prosecutor Guirec Le Bras said the child, who appeared to have been crushed during a jostling on the boat, was born in Germany to a 24-year-old Somali mother.

In a separate incident, Billant said rescuers found the three migrants in the bottom of a boat and rescued several others who fell overboard.

It is believed engine failure caused panic among the 83 passengers crammed onto the small boat, resulting in a deadly stampede.

The migrants rescued on Saturday were from Eritrea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iran, Ethiopia, Libya, Syria, Egypt, Kuwait and Iraq, Billant added.

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He added that his newly appointed government will “intensify the fight against these mafias who make money from these deadly crossings.”

French Prime Minister Michel Barnier said the country needs a tougher immigration policy, claiming he would be “ruthless” towards human traffickers who profit from human misery.

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“I have been in contact today with French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau,” she continued.

The fatal incident came after the Home Office confirmed that 395 migrants arriving in Britain had crossed the English Channel on Friday, the first arrivals in five days.

A woman and two men, all believed to be in their 30s, also died while crossing the Channel in a separate incident on Saturday

“We met this week at the G7 in Italy to discuss our determination to increase cooperation and law enforcement.

“We will pursue and dismantle criminal gangs that undermine border security and endanger so many lives.”

Cooper has pledged an immediate investment of £75 million in border security, with funding made available to the National Crime Agency to pay for covert operations equipment to disrupt people smugglers.

The Home Office said this would support the conduct of criminal investigations and disruption operations in Britain, across Europe and in upstream countries.

Retailleau responded: ‘Today several people died trying to cross the Channel.

‘A child was trampled to death in a boat. A terrible tragedy that should make us all aware of the tragedy that is unfolding.

‘The people smugglers have the blood of these people on their hands.

“Our government will intensify the fight against these mafias who are getting rich by organizing these crusades of death.”

The latest tragedies have left a total of 51 people dead this year trying to make the dangerous journey across the Channel.

The figure for 2023 is reportedly 12.

On Friday, after bad weather halted crossings for four days, a total of 395 people made the risky journey across the Channel in seven boats.

It means a total of 25,639 migrants have arrived on small boats so far this year, compared to 25,330 at the same time last year and 33,611 in 2022.

Saturday’s deaths come as a series of shipwrecks made 2024 the deadliest in recent years on the English Channel.

Last month, 12 people died after a boat carrying migrants broke apart while crossing from France to Britain.

About two weeks later, eight migrants died in a similar crossing attempt.

Speaking after Saturday’s disaster, Dover MP Mike Tapp said: ‘This is another tragedy. We are making progress in putting in place the necessary structures and partnerships to tackle the smuggling gangs.

“I have no doubt that working with our French counterparts and the EU is essential to make this route unviable to the evil smuggling gangs.”

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A Home Office spokesperson said: ‘We all want to put an end to dangerous small boat crossings, which threaten lives and undermine our border security.

‘As we have seen in so many recent devastating tragedies in the Channel, people smuggling gangs don’t care whether the vulnerable people they exploit live or die, as long as they pay.

“We will do everything we can to dismantle their business models and bring them to justice.

“We are making progress and strengthening our workforce in the UK and beyond.

“Our new Border Security Command will strengthen our global partnerships and increase our efforts to investigate, apprehend and prosecute these vicious criminals.”

This week, Britain and other G7 countries agreed an action plan against smuggling aimed at boosting cooperation.

The Home Office said this included joint investigations and intelligence sharing in an effort to tackle criminal smuggling routes.

The action plan also describes ‘working together’ with social media companies to monitor the internet and various platforms and prevent them from being used to facilitate migrant smuggling and human trafficking.

This included a call on social media companies ‘to do more to respond to online content advertising migrant smuggling services’.