A legal loophole is allowing smuggling gangs in Germany to store the deathtrap inflatable boats used to ferry migrants across the Channel.
It is not illegal for migrants to be transported through Germany to a nation outside the EU – and since Brexit this includes Britain.
It means people trafficking gangs are able to store their boats just a three-hour drive from the French coast as they make millions preying on desperate refugees.
The revalation comes as Keir Starmer pledges a series of new measures to tackle the ‘vile trade’ in Channel migrants amid soaring numbers of arrivals across the Channel.
The head of the UK’s National Crime Agency Graeme Biggar says that the loophole is curtailing our ability to fight back against the thugs, because British agencies must respect the laws of the countries they are working in.
‘They have a very significant illegal migration challenge themselves that they are dealing with and so we really are grateful for the support that we get,’ he told The Sun.
‘But it is a point we make to them constantly and it would be helpful if they were able to do slightly more.
Small boats and outboard motors used by people thought to be migrants to cross the Channel are laid out at a warehouse facility in Dover, Kent
‘It’s obviously a matter for the German government to decide but from our point of view a law change would be helpful.’
More than 50 people have died this year trying to cross the Channel and find refuge in the UK.
The deadly dinghies are first made in China, before they are shipped more than 3,500 miles to smuggling gangs in Turkey.
From there, they are driven to Germany, where they are hidden in a network of warehouses and sold to gangs trafficking migrants across the waters.
They are driven the final stretch of the journey through Holland and Belgium, before taking the final 22-mile stretch across the Channel, crammed with migrants.
Last night, MPs blasted Germany, with Sir Alec Shelbrooke saying EU rules should be ‘irrelevant’ to tackling a scheme which capitalises on the ‘exploitation of vulnerable people dying in their dozens every year’.
Chairwomen of the Home Affairs Select Committee Karen Bradley added that stopping people smuggling should be a ‘global priority.
And even Interpol’s Director of Organised and Emerging Crime backed Mr Biggar, telling The Sun that gangs ‘don’t care what the trail of destruction is’.
A migrant reacts after boarding a smuggler’s inflatable dinghy in an attempt to cross the English Channel on Ecault beach in northern France on October 30
More than 30,000 migrants have made the perilous journey in small boats across the Channel so far this year Pictured: Arrivals last month at Dover, Kent
It comes after Sir Keir pledged a series of new measures amid criticism from the Tories over his ‘weak’ record on illegal migrants and soaring numbers of arrivals across the Channel.
Labour’s new Border Security Command (BSC) will get enhanced powers to stop and search suspected human traffickers, including seizing their phones and other devices.
Officials will be able to obtain search warrants to seize items from premises before an offence has even taken place – powers currently reserved only for anti-terror cases.
Suspected people traffickers will face invasive financial searches, as the law is changed to allow courts to grant permission for scrutiny of accounts, property and other assets, government sources said.
Serious Crime Prevention Orders will be expanded to suspected gang members before they are even convicted to restrict their access to the internet, banking and travel.
Some of the measures will see the Terrorism Act 2000 expanded to cover immigration gangs, it is understood, including allowing investigators to copy the contents of suspected smugglers’ electronic devices.
Shadow home secretary James Cleverly has previously said that people are dying in the Channel as a direct result of Labour ‘incompetence’ and ‘appalling decision-making’.
He added that abandoning the Rwanda plan had sent a ‘massive signal’ to trafficking gangs that Britain was ‘softening’ its border defences, fuelling a surge in small boat crossings.
Migrants board a smuggler’s inflatable dinghy in an attempt to cross the English Channel, on Ecault beach in Saint-Etienne-au-Mont, near Neufchatel-Hardelot, northern France on October 30
A group of people thought to be migrants, including young children, are brought in to Dover, Kent, from a Border Force vessel following a small boat incident in the Channel on November 8
Speaking in Glasgow at the annual conference of Interpol, the international policing organisation, Sir Keir announced he is doubling funding for the BSC to £150million.
A government spokesman described the smuggling gangs as a ‘national security threat’.
Since Labour ripped up the Rwanda deal – which was designed to save lives by deterring crossings – Channel arrivals have increased month-by-month.
More than 17,500 migrants have reached Britain since the election.
The running tally for the year is up 16 per cent to almost 32,000 compared with the same point last year.
A series of tragic deaths in the Channel in the last three weeks have brought 2024’s death toll to 59, making this the deadliest year since the crisis began at the end of 2018.
Part of the Government’s extra £75million for the BSC will set up a new organised immigration crime intelligence unit, to identify key developments contained in alerts from police forces.
The PM also announced another £24million for the Home Office next year to combat international serious organised crime including drugs and firearms, trafficking, fraud and exploitation.
Some of the cash will fund special prosecutors and operations in the Western Balkans, a key trafficking hub.
Ministers have previously announced the BSC will have 300 officers, while the National Crime Agency (NCA) is to get 100 investigators and intelligence officers to concentrate on human trafficking.
NCA director general Graeme Biggar said: ‘We are determined to do all we can to disrupt and dismantle these networks, wherever they operate.’
Interpol’s general assembly, being held in the UK for the first time in more than 50 years, is its governing body and features top law enforcement officers from 196 member states.
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