Migrants are now said to be being offered free crossings over the English Channel if they smuggle heroin into the UK.
International drug gangs and migrants smugglers are working with each other to push drugs into Britain via Channel crossings, according to reports.
Asylum seekers are said to be being offered free or discounted crossings in exchange for trafficking the drugs, with some being offered ‘VIP’ trips that place them on boats filled with women and children that criminals believe attract less suspicion.
According to one human trafficker, who spoke to The Telegraph, the drugs are then typically collected from migrants who have been placed in UK hotels run by the Home Office.
The scale of the problem is not known, but the new report suggests that at least some of the thousands of people travelling to the UK via the Channel are being used to create a new drug supply route.
Both the Home Office and the National Crime Agency have denied the issue is widespread.
A spokesperson for the Home Office told the Daily Mail: ‘We do not recognise these claims. This government is relentless in tackling the criminal gangs who put lives at risk.
‘Every migrant arriving illegally is subject to thorough security checks and searches to ensure no illicit drugs enter the UK.’
Migrants are now being offered free crossings over the English Channel if they smuggle heroin into the UK, according to a new report (File image of migrants in the Channel)
And an NCA spokesperson told the Mail that the problem was ‘not something it recognises but the agency remains alive to any changes in the organised immigration crime and drugs threats’.
Typically, every migrant that arrives in the UK via small boats is physically searched, with strip-searches being carried out upon arrival.
A Home Office source told the Mail that no illicit drugs have been found on arriving migrants, adding: ‘We do not view this route as one smugglers would wish to use.’
But physical searches of migrants may not result in the detection of drugs, if they swallow packets.
For this, X-ray scans would need to be used to search the stomachs of those arriving in the UK.
One Iranian migrant who spoke to the newspaper said a Kurdish smuggler offered him a discount that depended on how much he carried into the UK.
He said: ‘He said the more I took the less I’d need to pay. When I reached the UK hotels, he said, someone would call me to collect the package. He said he’d put me on a boat with women and children, which he said was safer and less likely to attract police attention.
‘I asked what would happen if I was arrested. He told me the drugs would stay in my stomach until I used the bathroom, and he joked that the police wouldn’t watch me inside the toilet.
‘They were pressuring us, treating us like slaves. I told them I needed to step outside, and I escaped.
A French police vessel passes lifejackets to migrants on a dinghy as they cross the English Channel on August 25, 2025 in Gravelines, France
Around 1,500 residents marched through the streets on Monday to protest against the Home Office plans
‘I later heard they were looking for me. Others in the camp said they were very dangerous people with guns. Eventually I got the money and travelled with a different smuggler.’
The issue of illegal immigration has inflamed many in the UK, so much so that in one town that is set to house 600 adult male migrants in an army camp, worried residents have set up a ‘vigilante’ group.
The Crowborough Patrol will wander the East Sussex town day and night wearing hi-vis jackets and red baseball caps.
They say they want to be a ‘visible deterrent’ to prevent any ‘unwanted activity’ and protect families and children.
Organisers say the patrol team will concentrate their efforts on the morning and afternoon school runs and will be on the streets in the evening.
They say if they see any behaviour they believe ‘warrants action’ they will have the means to report it and to contact the authorities.
Last night one resident branded the group ‘a bunch of vigilantes’ and called for the police to step in.
He said: ‘A bunch of vigilantes with too much time on their hands is the last thing this town needs.
‘It is already a powder keg situation and what we don’t need is for a self-appointed gang ready to put a flame to it. It’s a provocation and should be stopped by the police.’
The group insists it has the ‘full support’ of the local community and has hit out against the vigilante claims by describing them as ‘one comment on social media’. It said it will not directly intervene in any incidents, only report them on.
