CHANNEL migrants on small boats are making fake Mayday calls to French emergency crews so they are escorted to British waters.
The new ruse is to phone for help and pretend they are at risk of drowning in dinghies.
French coast guard and Navy go to rescue them, but realise there is no emergency.
They then have to stay in case the situation gets worse.
British Border Force vessels are then sent out to bring them to Dover.
French officials describe what the migrants are doing as “abusive” but say their hands are tied.
Gerard Barron, of the French Societe Nationale de Sauvetage en Mer, said: “This new strategy is to ask the people on the small boat to call for help and say they are in trouble when they are not.
“The smugglers tell the migrants, ‘Like that, you will be escorted’.
“When you arrive there, the boat has nothing wrong.
“What they want is to be accompanied to British waters.
“We stay behind and we wait.
“It is abusive but we cannot do otherwise.
“We can’t turn around.
“What if the boat sinks a few minutes later?”
It comes as the number of small boat migrants to land in the UK since Labour won power last summer soared past 50,000.
Reform UK MP Lee Anderson said: “If they are making Mayday calls, they should be picked up and taken back to France.
“The French and British authorities are being hoodwinked on a daily basis by boat loads of criminals.”
Chanel migrants on small boats are making fake Mayday calls to French emergency crews so they are escorted to British waters (stock picture)[/caption]