The average number of people cramming into vessels trying to cross the English Channel has soared to nearly 66 under Labour, with record 165 migrants packed onto a 42ft “mega dinghy” longer than a double-decker bus last week. Home Office figures reveal the average occupancy has more than doubled from 41 in the peak year of 2022 and rocketed from fewer than seven when the crisis began in 2018.

The all-time single-boat record was broken twice this month alone, climbing from 125 last September to 128 on July 10 before the 165-strong vessel smashed it again. The mammoth inflatable — likely cobbled together in a backstreet Chinese workshop — was intercepted and towed into Dover last Thursday. Shocking images of the overcrowded craft sparked alarm among border officials and maritime experts. A 19-year-old Sudanese man, Chan Mathok Atak, appeared before Margate magistrates’ court charged with endangering lives after allegedly piloting the vessel.

Prosecutor Lucie Fish told the court the boat was of poor quality, severely overcrowded and “appeared to be deflating upon interception.”

The single crossing is estimated to have generated around £300,000 for the traffickers, based on typical fees of £2,000 per migrant. Officials and former border watchdogs say the shift towards fewer but far larger boats reflects organised crime groups adapting to stepped-up seizures of engines and vessels.

With maritime equipment harder to obtain, gangs are maximising profits by loading more people onto each dinghy — while dramatically raising the risk of crush injuries, trampling deaths or mass drownings if a vessel founders.

Former chief inspector of borders and immigration David Neal warned that the use of super-sized boats capable of holding 160 people “poses a grave risk to life.”

He told The Mail traffickers “care only about their profits and are indifferent to the safety of the migrants they smuggle,” and that the authorities may become more reluctant to approach such overloaded craft at sea because the wake from patrol boats could destabilise them.

Home Office data shows 13,376 people have crossed so far this year — a 45 % drop on the same point in 2025, when arrivals reached 41,500, the second-highest annual total on record after 2022’s peak of nearly 46,000.

Ministers point to the fall as evidence that their “smash the gangs” strategy is working, citing National Crime Agency operations that have intercepted more than 1,500 boats and engines since early 2023, including 25 at Felixstowe earlier this month, plus sanctions against Chinese manufacturers and Iraqi suppliers.

Critics counter that the reduction owes more to prolonged periods of high winds in the early months of 2026 than to policy.

They note that Labour’s first act in power was to scrap the previous Conservative government’s Rwanda asylum deal, which Home Office evidence suggested was beginning to deter crossings even before it was fully implemented.

Under former PM Sir Keir Starmer, the Government opposed the scheme throughout the two years it took to secure legal clearance.

Despite the year-on-year dip, the rising number of migrants per boat has continued its relentless climb.

In the year ending March the average stood at just under 66, with some recent months seeing averages closer to 70. Experts say this trend makes Channel crossings more dangerous than ever, even as total arrivals fall.

At least 162 people died in the busy waterway between 2018 and 2025, according to the University of Oxford’s Migration Observatory, and the prospect of a single mega-dinghy capsizing with more than 160 souls aboard is what keeps successive home secretaries awake at night.

Commenting on the situation on X, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said: “At least 700 illegal migrants in the Channel this morning. The invasion continues. Yet Burnham said yesterday “the plan is working”. What planet is he on?”

A Home Office spokesman said: “Smuggling gangs are taking greater risks than ever with the number of people they are cramming into unseaworthy boats rising year on year.

“This crossing serves as a stark reminder that criminal gangs have no regard for the safety of those they claim to help — the reality is clear and lives are being lost in the Channel as a result.”