French and British authorities are tracking a migrant boat this lunchtime, launched from the furthest away beach ever recorded, GB News can reveal.
The migrant dinghy was spotted after launching the beach south of the port of Dieppe in Normandy around 8am today.
A lifeboat was scrambled from Dieppe to catch up and escort the dinghy as it headed out into the English Channel.
The launch site is around 100 miles south of the beaches more regularly used by people smugglers around Dunkirk.
A senior maritime security source told GB News this morning's attempt to reach the UK is a "shocking illustration of the desperate lengths the criminal gangs will go to in order to avoid enhanced police patrols further north".
In recent weeks, French police have significantly stepped up their patrols around Dunkirk and Calais in particular, by far the most common areas where small boats are launched from.
Calais and Dunkirk have been favoured by smuggling gangs because of the shorter distances involved to reach UK waters.
However, after the British government agreed a new £662 million deal to fund enhanced French coastal security, hundreds more police officers have been drafted into the area.
A migrant boat was tracked after being launched from Dieppe
|PA / GB NEWS
That has now forced smugglers to launch increasing numbers of dinghies from beaches over the border in Belgium, or much further south along the French coast.
This morning's launch south of Dieppe though has never been recorded that far south since the Channel migrant crisis began eight years ago.
The launch site is so far south, it is a very limit of what flimsy migrant dinghies are capable of.
The migrant boat will probably have to spend close to eight hours at sea before it reaches UK waters.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
Dieppe is around 100 miles further south than the normal launch points
|GB NEWS
A French warship patrol has now taken over from the lifeboat and is making very slow but steady progress escorting the migrant boat north.
GB News can reveal a second migrant dinghy has launched on Tuesday from Equihen Plage south of Boulogne.
It is currently being escorted out into open water by the French border patrol vessel Abeille Normandie.
This is the fifth day in a row that hundreds of migrants have launched from French and Belgian beaches, taking advantage of a run of good weather in the Channel.
Three boats crossed yesterday, carrying at least 150 people in UK waters.
On Friday, 394 migrants reached the UK.
On Saturday, 287 made the illegal crossing, while 231 reached the UK on Sunday.
If Tuesday's launches make it to UK waters, it will take the the number of illegal arrivals to more than 1,200 since Friday.