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Shabana Mahmood admitted Labour needs to go further to strengthen Britain’s borders following a week of chaos in the Channel. The Home Secretary said the Government’s work to tackle small boat crossings was beginning to “bear fruit” although she acknowledged further reforms were needed. More than 2,000 migrants have crossed the Channel since Andy Burnham became Prime Minister.

“It’s why I’m pursuing immigration reform to address the pull factors that draw people into boats in the Channel,” she said. “I want to change the calculus. I want them to change their mind about whether they get on the boat in the first place.”

Although removals are up 41% since Labour took power in 2024, with more than 70,000 deportations, she said the Government “will go further” on this issue and acknowledged public concern. I share their concern every time they see images of people crossing the Channel,” Ms Mahmood said. Asked about why 2,000 people had crossed the Channel in small boats since Prime Minister Andy Burnham took office on July 20, Ms Mahmood said the NCA’s work was having an “impact”.

“That’s why we’re doubling the number of NCA officers because we know that this is the work we need to do in order to secure our border,” she said.

She also said the number of deaths of people crossing the Channel had been “normalised”. She said four migrants had died trying to cross the Channel in the last few days, describing each of those deaths as a “tragedy”.

Rob Jones, director-general of operations at the NCA, said the smuggling gangs operating in Northern France have “no rules”.

“They have no rules. They don’t care about the migrants, and they are exploiting them at scale,” Mr Jones said. “That means that we can’t necessarily take direct action in the UK, and we need partners to do that with us,” he said.

“And that’s what we’re much better at now, and we’re achieving much stronger results with partners overseas working with us internationally to prevent this.”

Asked if smugglers were getting better at evading detection, Mr Jones said: “I wouldn’t say they’re getting smarter. I think they’re getting desperate.”

Intelligence officials believe they have “degraded” the smuggling gangs’ capability.

Joint operations between the British and the French have led to the arrests of 48 “organised immigration crime facilitators”. Crucially, Mr Capps revealed: “Many of them performed critical roles in organising boat departures or supplying boats and engines”.

The increased patrols in Calais and Dunkirk have led to a “geographic displacement” of the gangs. In response, the kingpins are adopting a “just-in-time” production line, with boats and engines moved from warehouses, often in Western Germany, to the French coast within a matter of hours.

And they are more reliant than ever on “taxi-boats” – or mega dinghies – to make the “most of available supplies”.

An African migrant died after a staggering 124-mile, 16-hour, journey from Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer (north of Caen), in Seine-Maritime to between Hardelot and Dannes.

It was the longest journey ever attempted, with the beach a staggering 223 miles from Calais.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has pledged to be “relentless” in tackling small boat crossings.

Mr Burnham visited Dover’s joint command room, the hub for monitoring small boat crossings, where officers from the NCA, Maritime and Coastguard Agency and the Border Security Command work to track movements across the strait using surveillance drones.

“Clearly, progress is being made, but we’re not complacent, and it’s why I am here.

“It’s why I’ve come down on Sunday to see the team to listen to what they think needs to be done, what further can be done.

“So we’re just going to be relentless. People want to see this issue addressed.

“I heard that on the doorsteps in Makerfield, but we also need to build a system that offers safe routes for people as well, because that also takes away the selling point of the gangs.

“So on every level we’ve got to cover this … crucially increasing the enforcement activity.”

During the visit Mr Burnham was shown a small boat which 96 migrants had used in May this year, then a surveillance drone used to detect small boat activity and the ops room.

Since the start of 2025, the number of National Crime Agency officers tackling organised immigration crime has more than doubled from 376 to almost 800.