Large numbers of small boats will attempt to cross from France to Britain's South Coast after a mega-dinghy reached Portsmouth at the weekend, it has been warned.French officials predicted 'far more' migrant dinghies will make the long distance sea voyage from Normandy in the coming weeks.British experts urged the Home Office to begin preparing for a new escalation of the Channel crisis after an inflatable with 120 people aboard arrived in Portsmouth on Sunday, prompting ugly scenes as protesters clashed with police.The dinghy had travelled about 70 miles from the Normandy coast – the first migrant boat to make such a lengthy crossing.Its route was hundreds of miles from the usual transit point between Calais and Dover.A senior French interior ministry source told the Daily Mail: 'The geographical focus of the people smugglers is definitely changing.'They are finding it much harder to get boats launched in the Pas-de-Calais and so are moving west, across to Normandy.'We expect far more of the mega-dinghies to appear here in the coming weeks and months.
An infrared image taken by a French lifeboat crew that shadowed but did not stop a dinghy carrying 120 migrants that was later taken to PortsmouthLifejackets dumped by migrants by the road at Eastney Beach, where the migrants arrived, are collected by locals 'The success on Sunday proved the voyage can be done.'The Home Office confirmed 625 migrants reached Britain on Sunday, the highest daily total since July 29.A further as-yet-unconfirmed number, thought to be about 130, arrived in the early hours of Monday.Occupants of the Portsmouth dinghy, including 20 women and eight 'very young children', refused rescue after their outboard motor broke down, according to French officials.The 46ft mega-dinghy left an isolated beach near Jobourg, Normandy, in the 'very early hours' of Sunday morning, a senior search-and-rescue official said.'Jobourg is not patrolled by police, because nobody would expect a boat to leave from such an isolated, rocky spot,' the source said.'Within an hour or so the boat was in serious difficulty, and passengers on board made Mayday calls on their mobile phones.'Its outboard motor failed, leaving the dinghy drifting dangerously 14 miles off the French coast.'We asked them who wanted to be rescued, and the answer was no one,' said the source.'Only a few migrants were wearing life jackets, so we handed out jackets to all of them. It seemed incomprehensible that they were risking their lives without life jackets. The migrants were brought ashore by RNLI vessels The landing sparked protests which saw demonstrators clash with riot police until they were dispersed in the early hours of Monday morning'A second outboard motor was made to work, so the boat could continue on its voyage to Britain.'Five French rescue boats and two helicopters were involved in an operation that oversaw the dinghy's 14-hour crossing.A spokesman for the Maritime Prefecture for the English Channel and the North Sea said migrants were not transferred to rescue vessels due to concerns over the 'structural fragility' of their dinghy.The crossing was later monitored by British authorities – including a Coastguard aircraft and RNLI lifeboats – and escorted into Eastney marina, three miles from Portsmouth's main harbour.Hundreds of demonstrators blocked the road to the marina, preventing migrants from departing by coach.Border control experts said heightened tensions over the Channel crisis would make it 'far more complicated' for UK authorities.Former chief inspector of borders and immigration David Neal said: 'It now seems unavoidable that trafficking gangs will launch more small boats from French beaches far away from the main security patrols around Calais.'If they have not done so already the Home Office should begin putting in place detailed plans on how to handle arrivals along the South Coast.
