Smugglers are now also overfilling larger boats in order to carry more people and maximise profits, said Tuesday Reitano.
More than 32,000 people have crossed the English Channel illegally so far this year (Image: GETTY/AP)
People-smuggling gangs are importing so-called “super dinghies” from China via Germany to ferry migrants across the Channel, a leading organised crime expert has warned. Tuesday Reitano, Deputy Director of the Global Initiative against Transnational Organised Crime, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Tuesday the shift to larger vessels was not necessarily a sign of success for border enforcement, but a calculated move by smugglers to maximise profits.
She said: “The evolution into bigger boats is just a profit-making strategy. The vast majority of crossings are still in smaller vessels, often dangerously overcrowded, but smugglers are now also overfilling larger boats to carry more people.” The surge in bigger dinghies comes amid another year of high Channel crossings. More than 32,000 migrants have reached the UK in small boats so far in 2025.
On Saturday, a single “mega-dinghy” carried 125 people – the largest number to arrive on one vessel from France. The figure nearly doubles the average number carried by smaller boats and breaks the previous record of 107 set earlier this summer.
Tragically, at least three people died that day, including a child believed to be a teenager who fell from another dinghy and two women from Somalia who were crushed in the bottom of a vessel.
Ms Reitano highlighted the international supply chain behind these large boats. Many are manufactured in China and shipped through Turkey before being stored and distributed across Europe.
Germany has long acted as a logistics hub, with warehouses and networks facilitating the transfer of boats to smugglers operating along the Channel.
Home Office Minister Mike Tapp (Image: Philip Coburn /Daily Mirror)
Ms Reitano said: “Germany has proven a real logistics hub for these transfers. The challenge is that holding or selling a boat is not illegal, so enforcement often relies on proving intent for smuggling, or demonstrating a lack of safety features typical of commercial boats.”
The Home Office has sought to disrupt the trade through international cooperation. New agreements with Germany aim to allow police to seize boats more easily before they reach the Channel. However, Ms Reitano warned that upstream enforcement alone is not enough.
She said: “Success depends on as much cooperation as possible with countries along the entire route. China remains a very difficult partner, and targeting individual manufacturers would be a huge challenge.”
The rise of “super dinghies” underlines the escalating risks for migrants. Overcrowding, rough seas, and unseaworthy vessels mean that crossings are increasingly dangerous.
Authorities have warned that smugglers are exploiting gaps in enforcement, taking advantage of short windows of calm weather to move large numbers across.
Home Office Minister Mike Tapp, also speaking on Today, said that the government was stepping up efforts to tackle the gangs behind these operations.
He added: “These vile smugglers are putting people’s lives at risk. We’re having success upstream, intercepting the boats, the actual procurement of the parts, which is why they’re now starting to use bigger boats, because they’re finding it more difficult to get them.
“But that’s more risky for people. We’re going to go faster and harder to secure the borders through our international agreements with, for example, the Italians, the French, the Germans, all the way up to Iraq.”
As the Channel continues to see record numbers of crossings, the emergence of Chinese-manufactured “super dinghies” is prompting renewed warnings from experts and officials alike about the lethal stakes of human smuggling in Europe.
