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Border chief warns nearly 4,000 migrants are camped in northern France waiting to cross, DOUBLE the usual number

A overcrowded Channel dinghy carrying migrants, as Major General Duncan Capps warned MPs that smugglers are now packing up to 230 people onto single vessels, with a mass casualty incident "only a matter of time.
A overcrowded Channel dinghy carrying migrants, as Major General Duncan Capps warned MPs that smugglers are now packing up to 230 people onto single vessels, with a mass casualty incident "only a matter of time.
Major General Duncan Capps, who told MPs that winter crossings from Normandy — nearly 60 nautical miles away — risk proving fatal for the roughly 3,800 migrants now gathered in camps around Calais and Dunkirk.
Major General Duncan Capps, who told MPs that winter crossings from Normandy — nearly 60 nautical miles away — risk proving fatal for the roughly 3,800 migrants now gathered in camps around Calais and Dunkirk.

Major General Duncan Capps warned MPs that a mass casualty incident in the Channel is 'only a matter of time'. Smugglers are packing migrants onto fewer but larger dinghies, with one vessel this year holding 230 people. He is particularly concerned that winter departures from Normandy, which lies almost 60 nautical miles away, will prove fatal. French authorities estimate 3,800 people are now gathered in camps around Calais and Dunkirk, roughly double the previous figure of around 2,000.

The great majority of those waiting to cross are single men from Eritrea, Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia and Afghanistan.

Small boat arrivals this year have fallen 43 per cent to just under 21,000.

The National Crime Agency's Rob Jones said a crossing now costs smugglers' customers 'over 1,000 euros and under 2,000'.

MoreThe IndependentPeople smugglers now ‘using bigger boats to make riskier journeys across the Channel’The IndependentOnly a matter of time until mass casualty event in Channel, border chief warnsDaily MailNearly 4,000 migrants waiting to cross Channel, warns borders chiefUA.NEWSBritain warns of risk of mass deaths in the English Channel — The National - UA.NEWS
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