A deal to allow police to cut through bureaucracy and pursue people smugglers has been struck between the UK and Belgium.
Law enforcement officers from the two nations will now be able to share intelligence without needing the permission of a judge, after the agreement was signed by UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood and Belgian Interior Minister Bernard Quintin.
Belgium has been used as a logistical hub for people smugglers to hide boats and engines before they are transported to the French coast, from where migrants are crammed on to boats to cross the English Channel.
People smugglers have also been increasingly using Belgium's shores to transport migrants to Britain after tighter controls were applied along the French coast.
Joint activity between the UK and Belgium has led to 50 arrests linked to migrant smuggling this year.
Last year, a boat supplier to people-smuggling gangs in the English Channel was sentenced to 11 years in jail and fined €400,000 ($465,000) by a court in Belgium.
The conviction of Adem Savas followed a joint investigation between the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) and Belgian authorities after his arrest at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport in November 2024.
The Turkish businessman made millions by charging around £4,000 ($5,400) for each boat, some of which were likely to have been involved in the deaths of migrants, according to the NCA.
Savas was initially identified by the NCA following an investigation into UK-based Kurdish crime boss Hewa Rahimpur, who was sentenced to 13 years in jail at the same court in Bruges.
Ms Mahmood said the new agreement will help UK and Belgian police “tighten the net around the criminal gangs behind small-boat crossings”.
“The migrant-smuggling trade doesn’t start and stop on the beaches of northern France,” she said. “These gangs operate across borders, so we’ll work with every international partner available to track them down, shut them down and bring them to justice.”
So far this year, around 17,281 migrants have crossed the English Channel, down by nearly 45 per cent on the same period last year.
But in response, people smugglers have been cramming more migrants on to each boat to maintain their profits. The number on one boat reached 230, the capacity of a Boeing 737-10 passenger jet.
Recent protests in Portsmouth over the arrival of 140 migrants packed on to a boat, after a 10-hour journey across the English Channel, suggests the issue remains politically charged.
The dinghy that arrived on Sunday was launched in the Bay of the Seine, around 270km south-west of Calais, where the boats are typically launched from northern France. That meant its journey from France was significantly longer than most small-boat crossings.
