Small boat gangs switching cross-Channel smuggling operations from France to Belgium have been hit by an unprecedented wave of arrests, the Mail on Sunday can reveal.
The gangs are trying to evade increased police patrols on French beaches by launching ‘taxi boats’ from West Flanders, south-west of Bruges.
Passengers include UK-bound migrants in Belgium with others picked up across the border on remote stretches of the Hauts-de-France coast around Dunkirk and Calais.
However, the smugglers have reckoned without a determined Belgian response which has seen 40 suspected smugglers and over 360 migrants arrested since January.
It is a far cry from scenes last year in which French police stood back as migrants waded through shallows to hop into flimsy inflatable craft.
Belgian police say gang leaders have been forced to switch tactics because ‘many more’ French officers are now on patrol – a change the British government has attributed to its new partnership with Paris aimed at curbing illegal migration.
A Federale Politie spokesperson said that in each of the previous two years the total number of small boat launches from Belgium was ‘between zero and one’.
Yet in the first four months of 2026 police recorded 27, with a further five failed attempts.
A French Warship escorts an inflatable ‘small boat’ carrying migrants across the channel towards Britain. Small boat gangs switching cross-Channel smuggling operations from France to Belgium have been hit by an unprecedented wave of arrests
Migrants dash to board a small boat in an attempt to reach Britain in northern France. Gangs trying to evade increased police patrols on French beaches by launching ‘taxi boats’ from West Flanders, south-west of Bruges
The spokesperson added: ‘In January we began to see a big increase and now such launches are regular.
‘It is because French police are doing many more patrols on their side of the border.
‘Organised crime gangs will always try to adapt when their business model is disrupted and it seems some have adapted by trying to move migrants to the UK from Belgium.
‘We have stepped up our patrols, as the number of arrests shows. We have also launched a campaign urging the public to report suspicious behaviour.’
The spokesperson said there was ‘good intelligence co-operation’ between Belgian, French and German police, and the UK’s National Crime Agency.
Belgium deports around 50% of all ‘transit-migrants’ – so called because they are travelling through the country to a destination elsewhere.
In 2020 they apprehended 4,238 and the following year 3,458, although these mostly involved migrants hiding in lorries at ports such as Zeebrugge.
Since then the number has reduced dramatically amid greater port security. Last year 352 were arrested but the shift to small-boat smuggling has seen Belgium already arrest 364 this year.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood with her French counterpart Laurent Nunez in Dunkirk. Last month both ministers joint statement claimed that 480 cross-Channel smugglers were arrested in 2025
A spokesperson for the Belgian Immigration Office said: ‘In recent months, we have observed an increase which can be attributed to a shift in migration routes from France to the Belgian coast.
‘Specifically in the province of West Flanders, including coastal cities and the highways leading to them, at least 333 transit migrants have already been apprehended in 2026.’
Last month Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood and French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez issued a joint statement claiming that 480 cross-Channel smugglers were arrested in 2025.
They said a new, three-year Anglo-French agreement would increase the number of law enforcement officers deployed in northern France to stop illegal crossings by 53%, from 907 this year to 1392 by 2029.
It would also fund ‘deployment of new technologies to reduce the number of departures of small boats, in particular water taxis.’
Alp Mehmet, former British diplomat and chairman of Migration Watch UK , said most illegal migrants would avoid a cross-Channel voyage from Belgium.
‘Few migrants will switch from France to Belgium, whatever happens in France – which so far has been precious little,’ he said.
‘The greater distances involved and the Belgian coastguard’s readiness to intercept boats that have set sail make it unlikely. Some may chance the backs of lorries from ports like Zeebrugge but the numbers won’t be huge.
‘The only effective deterrence is the detention of illegal arrivals followed by swift removal.’
