Migrants are being forced to board dangerously overcrowded small boats at gunpoint to make the journey across the Channel, reports The Times.
An Iranian woman has become the first migrant to die during a crossing that has been attempted by more than 1,200 people — many of them from her country — this year.
She is missing presumed drowned after a boat carrying her and 19 others, including several children, got into difficulties in worsening winds and rain off Kent last Friday afternoon.
The British and French authorities are hunting the people smugglers who arranged the fatal crossing and collected tens of thousands of pounds from those on board.
Crossing the Channel by boat is a more expensive option than many of the other illegal migration routes but has been used widely by Iranian and Iraqi asylum seekers who are often more affluent than other nationalities.
Many Iranians fly into Europe and cross over land to the Channel, often buying cars and rigid inflatable boats to make the crossing.
Intelligence sources say that organised crime groups have tried to take control of the crossing routes because they regard them as highly lucrative. People-smuggling gangs led by Albanians and Iraqi Kurds have been identified and in June an Iranian man was jailed for two years in France for supplying boats to smugglers.
A law enforcement source said: “We have heard stories of coercion and gun threats and there is no doubt that people-smuggling gangs are involved. But we also have to be wary that some people may have been coached about what to say when they arrive in the UK.”
Read more of this report from The Times (subscription required).