Smugglers are selling dinghies for small-boat crossings to Britain from a city in Germany 250 miles from the French coast, according to a report.
An undercover investigation by the BBC exposed Essen’s alleged links to people smuggling over the English Channel.
Germany has emerged as a key location for storing the boats and engines used to carry migrants across the perilous route where three people died trying to get to Britain on Wednesday (October 23).
In total, 28,645 people crossing the Channel have arrived in the UK so far this year, according to Home Office figures.
The number of arrivals is eight percent higher than at the same point in 2023 (26,501) and 25 percent lower than in 2022 (38,129).
So far this year, 48 deaths have been reported by the French coastguard, including a baby who died when a boat got into difficulty on October 17.
Smugglers unwittingly revealed to an undercover reporter posing as a Syrian migrant that they store boats in a number of secret warehouses in the west German city.
By car, Essen is about five hours away from Calais, which is some 250 miles away from the Ruhr region’s second-largest city. The German city has a population of more than half a million.
German police have carried out raids to tackle people smuggling, but the pernicious activity isn’t technically illegal in Germany if it is to a third country outside the EU, as Britain now is post Brexit.
It is an offence, however, to aid smuggling to other EU member states, such as France from where Channel crossings take place.
The BBC reports that Berlin maintains that as Germany and Britain aren’t geographical neighbours, “no direct smuggling” takes place. Keir Starmer‘s government is reported to feel “frustration” at the legal loophole.
According to the broadcaster’s investigation, boats can be delivered to Calais in three or four hours from Essen. The majority of the vessels are made in China and enter Europe via Turkey.
Smugglers offered the BBC‘s undercover reporter a “package” deal costing £12,500 (15,000 euros), including a boat, engine, fuel, pump and life jackets.
A spokesperson for the Home Office said the British Government is accelerating efforts with countries such as Germany to crack down on people smuggling gangs.
Refugee organisations continue to urge the UK Government to set up safe alternatives to the dangerous Channel crossing, where they say deaths have become “appallingly regular”.