On Friday, AFP said its team saw “hundreds” of migrants in the Gravelines area in northern France preparing to cross the Channel from the beaches as soon as the weather turned favourable.
Earlier this month, three people died – likely in a crush on the bottom of a packed boat – off the coast of Calais during another attempted crossing.
Last year, 50 people died while trying to cross the Channel, according to incidents recorded by the French coastguard.
More than 30,000 people have reached the UK in small boats so far in 2025 and more than 50,000 have crossed since Labour came into power in July 2024.
The UK government has come under increased pressure over the number of small boats crossing into the UK and asylum seeker applications.
Recently France and the UK agreed on a “one in, one out” returns deal, which was designed as a deterrent to stop boats from crossing the Channel. It proposes that for each migrant the UK returns to France, another migrant who had not attempted a Channel crossing but with a strong case for asylum in Britain will come the other way.
Sir Keir Starmer has previously called the crossings “totally unacceptable” and Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has said the “vile” people-smugglers behind them are “wreaking havoc on our borders”.