The UK can expect shocking 22,0000 illegal immigrants will be trafficked by sea to British shores by the end of this year.
Daily newspaper The Times made the estimate based on data from the UK Border Force. If correct, it will almost three time the figure of 8,410 for 2020, while in 2019 only around 1,000 made the hazardous crossing of the English Channel or North Sea.
The 219 people intercepted in 11 boats on Wednesday plus 175 more on Thursday took the total this year to 8,840. Almost 3,000 have arrived so far this month.
Thousands more are expected to attempt to enter the UK by stowing away on the endless stream of goods lorries crossing the channel via ferries or the undersea tunnel — a route fraught with its own risks as many risk hiding in freezer trailers.
Traffickers have been encouraging would-be migrants to cough up for the crossing with tales of free hotel accommodation and COVID-19 jabs.
"They told me I'd be taken to a hotel and live there. I was even shown pictures," one told The Sun. "I was told I'd be jabbed too because Britain had so much of the vaccine they could afford to give it away."
Newly-hired GB News presenter and former Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage, who has long documented people-trafficking to his home county of Kent, claimed vindication via Twitter.
Farage had tweeted fresh evidence of French navy collusion with the traffickers and British attempts to hide the extent of the problem tonly this week.