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The images, captured by an authorised Daily Express drone last week, show rows and rows of the tiny boats in a facility beside a warehouse in Dover, Kent. It’s believed they were used on the Channel by migrants fleeing persecution from overseas, which often occurs with the help of criminal gangs.   

The Home Office has warned it is “going after those responsible for facilitating crossings” and has advised those fleeing countries to “seek refuge in the first safe country they reach”.

But the new photos show the scale of the often-deadly activity. In one picture alone, four rows each of about 15 assorted inflatable boats are seen in the fenced-off compound.

Record numbers of people crossed to the UK in 2021.

Data shows more than 28,000 journeys of this nature were made across 12 months – a three-fold rise from the figure in 2020.

At least 44 people died or went missing during the attempts. 

During mild weather in November last year, at least 6,869 people arrived on English shores.

Migrants are crammed onto boats on each of these journeys. One vessel last summer was found to have 83 people on board.

The inflatable boats have, according to reports, been held together with tape and migrants have used rubber rings or bike tyre inner tubes rather than life jackets. 

Claire Millot of Salam, a migrant welfare NGO, said there are fewer labour blocks for asylum seekers in the UK.

She said last year there are “no identity papers in England”, which may help lead people to “undeclared work”.

Other countries people may come through, such as France, Germany or Italy, require government-issued identity cards.

Evidence of their journeys to the UK is gathered by the Home Office, it says, in the form of securing their vessels.

Home Office bosses told Express.co.uk the boats are recovered and secured securely at a site as part of its investigations. They haven’t, though, confirmed the location of such compound.

Last year, Home Secretary Priti Patel announced an agreement to more than double the number of police patrolling French beaches, with the Government to give France £54 million.

There is, however, still some frustration in the Home Office about French policies.

The French authorities will not intercept migrants who offer resistance to being rescued, but the UK has a different interpretation of the law.

Speaking to Express.co.uk, a Home Office spokesperson said: “People fleeing persecution should seek refuge in the first safe country they reach and not risk their lives paying criminal gangs to make the dangerous journey across the Channel to the UK.

“We are going after those responsible for facilitating crossings, and, as part of investigations, the boats recovered are securely stored to use as evidence.

“The Nationality and Borders Bill will reform our approach and fix the broken system, including by making it a criminal offence to arrive in the UK illegally and introducing a maximum life sentence for those who facilitate illegal entry so we can truly break the business model of the heinous criminals profiteering from deadly crossings.”

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