It was a floating death-trap and, at 42ft, longer than a double-decker bus. The mammoth inflatable vessel – likely to have been cobbled together in a backstreet workshop in China – carried a scarcely believable 165 migrants towards Britain’s shores.
When shocking images of this ‘mega dinghy’ on the water emerged last week, it was a chilling indicator of the utter contempt people traffickers show for human life.
And for the Labour Government, these giant galleys are a stark testament to the insoluble problem of Channel ‘small boats’.
Last Thursday’s extraordinary scenes led to a teenager who allegedly piloted the record-breaking dinghy appearing in court charged with endangering lives.
Chan Mathok Atak, 19, from Sudan, made an initial appearance before Margate magistrates’ court, where prosecutor Lucie Fish said the boat was poor quality, overcrowded and ‘appeared to be deflating upon interception’.
In 2018 – the year the Channel crisis began – the average number of migrants on each dinghy was less than seven.
By 2022, the record year for arrivals, the average number per boat had risen to 41. Now it stands at just under 66.
The all-time record for the number of migrants in one dinghy has already been topped twice this month.
It rose from 125, set last September, to 128 on July 10, and then that record was smashed by last week’s mega-dinghy with 165 aboard.
But what has prompted the traffickers’ boats to swell to such a remarkable size?
At 42ft, longer than a double-decker bus. The mammoth inflatable vessel – likely cobbled together in a backstreet workshop in China – carried a scarcely believable 165 migrants towards Britain’s shores
The phenomenon is probably a sign of desperation on the part of the criminals behind the scheme. As law enforcement cracks down on their trade, maritime equipment such as motors becomes harder to come by.
And that desperation is precisely why Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood should be very worried indeed about what is unfolding on the Channel. As one of its first acts on taking power, Labour scrapped the previous Tory government’s Rwanda asylum deal out of pure spite.
Under Sir Keir Starmer, Labour had opposed the agreement throughout the two years it took the Conservatives to secure a legal green light for deportations to the east African nation.
Evidence published by the Home Office, remarkably, has shown the Rwanda scheme was beginning to deter Channel crossings even before it came into force.
Regardless, Labour pursued its alternative plan to ‘smash the gangs’, which relied on beefing up operations by police and other law enforcement agencies.
Initially, it was an utter failure. Last year saw the second-highest number of crossings on record, at 41,500. So far this year, however, there has been a significant dip. There have been 13,376 arrivals, which marks a 45 per cent fall on the same point last year.
But despite Andy Burnham’s claim that ‘the plan is working’, these numbers do not necessarily indicate a massive success for Labour. Arrivals in 2025 included a surge early that year – somewhat distorting the figures – while in January, February and into early spring this year, there were long periods of high winds.
That said, encouragingly, police have made some inroads against the traffickers. The National Crime Agency says that since early 2023, it and international partners have intercepted more than 1,500 boats and engines, including 25 at Felixstowe port earlier this month. Last summer Britain imposed sanctions against a Chinese company manufacturing inflatables, as well as several Iraqis supplying the vessels to smuggling gangs. This is all creditable work.
But, like their counterparts selling illegal drugs, organised smuggling gangs are highly flexible – and will stop at nothing to protect their multi-million-pound business model.
A patrol boat hands over life jackets to a raft off Gravelines, near Calais. July 29, 2026
The mega-dinghy alone is likely to have generated a staggering £300,000 profit, assuming each migrant paid a typical £2,000 fee.
Clearly, the smugglers have not been deterred. Former chief inspector of borders and immigration David Neal said: ‘Organised crime gangs are very adept at getting around any measures put in place by law enforcement.
‘If police manage to close down one avenue through which smugglers were obtaining dinghies and maritime equipment, the gangs will immediately switch to look for other manufacturers, importation routes, and so on. Dealing with organised criminals is a constant game of cat-and-mouse.
‘The use of extra-large dinghies suggests that traffickers have changed their tactics in this way. It is likely they have secured a new manufacturer which is now making these larger boats to order.
‘It could even indicate that law enforcement’s success in seizing outboard motors is driving up the size of the boats – in other words, they have fewer motors and so are using them to power a smaller number of larger dinghies.’
He added: ‘The use of super-sized boats capable of holding 160 people also poses a grave risk to life.
‘We have already seen tragedies in the Channel where dozens of people have drowned when a single dinghy capsized… There have also been a number of migrants killed by trampling and crushes inside dinghies, and, with even larger numbers of people aboard single vessels, that surely becomes even more of a risk.
‘The authorities may even be more reluctant to approach such vessels at sea because the wake created by patrol boats would risk destabilising these unseaworthy dinghies already so overloaded.’
This prospect of mass drownings is what keeps home secretaries awake at night. Previous incumbents have privately spoken of the guilt they felt in the wake of Channel deaths, pondering whether there was anything they could have done to prevent the loss of life.
Former borders watchdog Mr Neal said: ‘Traffickers care only about their profits and are indifferent to the safety of the migrants they smuggle. They will corral ever-higher numbers of migrants into these death-trap dinghies just to make money, with potentially disastrous consequences.
‘All in all, the very worthy aim of targeting organised crime gangs and their supply chains may have had the unintended side-effect of making Channel crossings even more dangerous.’
