Joe Mannion , Foreign News ReporterWednesday August 12, 2026
A months-old baby was seen being taken on board an inflatable dinghy in FranceCredit: LNP
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A BABY just months old was among the migrants loaded onto a crowded inflatable boat preparing to cross the Channel, while French police watched from the shore.
Dozens of people, including several young children, packed onto the dinghy as tourists and officers looked on from a nearby beach.
At a series of stops along the French coastline, migrants were seen carrying young children towards the waiting taxi boat, including a baby only months old.
Officers reportedly threatened to arrest a photographer who captured them standing by and doing nothing.
French authorities had tracked the vessel for nine-and-a-half hours as it collected passengers at different points along the coast.
The dinghy appeared to have set off close to Dieppe, the Normandy fishing port, considerably farther south than the sites normally used for Channel crossings.
People-smuggling gangs are believed to be turning to new launch points in an effort to avoid detection by police.
A French coastguard vessel followed the boat along the coast, but reportedly did so only in case the dinghy sank.
The small boat was intercepted in the channel and its passengers taken to DoverCredit: LNP
After travelling 40 miles, the dinghy paused at Berck beach before continuing for a further 12 miles to Camiers.
At Camiers, photographer Ioannis Alexopoulos watched as a group of migrants came from behind the dunes and moved towards the boat.
His photographs showed young children being lifted aboard, including a baby so small that it could not wear a life jacket.
He said: “Three police turned up, gendarmes in military clothes – but all they did was film, and threaten to arrest me if I kept taking pictures.”
Two young children wait in the sea to board a taxi boatCredit: LNP
The migrants continued towards Britain before a British Border Security Command vessel intercepted them in the Channel and brought them to Dover.
They represent only a fraction of the more than 2,000 people who have crossed since Andy Burnham became Prime Minister three weeks ago.
The incident comes as the Government warns that criminal smuggling networks could quickly alter their methods and reverse progress in reducing small-boat crossings.
Arrivals are down 43 per cent compared with the same period last year, following efforts to prevent dinghies reaching beaches and tougher enforcement against the gangs operating the routes.
Migrants attempt to lift a child on board a taxi boat at the beach at Camiers in FranceCredit: LNP
However, Duncan Capps, the new Border Security Commander and a former Army officer, said in his first annual report that the improvement was “not definitive”.
Although crossings have fallen, the number of migrants gathered in northern France and waiting for an opportunity to reach the UK remains unchanged.
Maj Gen Capps wrote: “Recent numbers are positive. But this could change rapidly.”
“Particularly given the likelihood that organised criminal gangs will adapt their tactics and seek to drive renewed flows.
“Especially over the summer months when conditions are more favourable.
“We have steadily forced organised crime groups into a less advantageous position.
“But we should be prepared for them to innovate to protect their profits.”
As of early August, 14,561 people have crossed the Channel in small boats this year.
A Home Office source said the new policies were “beginning to bear fruit”, but added: “we are not complacent”.
