French border force rams speedboat into vessel filled with migrants in Channel

The vessel, which set off around 7.30am local time from Gravelines Beach, was approached by the speedboat which told it to turn around and head to shore.

However, the black dinghy continued on its journey across the Channel, with the coastguard craft following in pursuit.

The border guard speedboat, which was flashing blue and red, then appeared to ram the crammed migrant boat.

Witnesses said that the dinghy was then followed by a French naval vessel, as well as the coastguard search and rescue craft Ridens. Both tried to guide the boat into Calais port.

Over 19,000 migrants in small boats have crossed the English Channel this year, with 5,500 of them crossing since Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Government came into power, GB News can confirm.

The milestone was reached over the weekend when over 450 migrants in over nine boats crossed from France on Saturday.

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Home Secretary Yvette Cooper recently announced the establishment of a new Border Security Command, and Starmer has promised to “smash the gangs”.

Cooper claimed Labour would “tackle the root of the problem” by targeting the criminal smuggling gangs “making millions out of small boat crossings, undermining our border security and putting lives at risk”.

Officers will be granted new powers under the Counter Terrorism Act to allow them to conduct stop and searches at the border, as well as carry out financial investigations and deliver search and seizure warrants targeting organised crime relating to immigration.

Speaking at the Nato summit in Washington last month, Starmer said: “This a command that will lead on smashing the gangs and as I’ve said many times before, having been myself part of operations that have taken down gangs – police and prosecutors across borders gathering evidence and intelligence, sharing data, having an arrest strategy, a prosecution strategy, an evidence strategy has successfully brought down many gangs, including terrorist gangs.

“I do not accept these are the only gangs that can’t be brought down.”

A Home Office spokesperson said: “We all want to see an end to dangerous small boat crossings, which are undermining border security and putting lives at risk.

“The new Government is taking steps to boost our border security, setting up a new Border Security Command which will bring together our intelligence and enforcement agencies, equipped with new counter-terror style powers and hundreds of personnel stationed in the UK and overseas, to smash the criminal smuggling gangs making millions in profit.”