GB News has obtained footage of the French Navy handing life jackets to small-boat migrants as they cross the English Channel.
The footage showed dozens of migrants clad in bright orange flotation devices as a French boat floated alongside.
Sailors aboard the Navy vessel could be seen hurling life jackets to migrants whose hands were outstretched to catch them.
It comes as at least 9,700 individuals have made the illegal crossing into Britain this year.
GB News has obtained footage of the French Navy handing life jackets to small-boat migrants as they cross the English Channel
|GB NEWS
The footage was obtained just hours after hundreds of illegal migrants embarked on a dangerous 22-hour Channel crossing overnight.
Three migrant boats were launched from beaches around the Dieppe area at 7am yesterday, more than 100 miles south of the normal launch points around Dunkirk and Calais.
They eventually made it to UK waters early this morning, and more than 160 small boat migrants were picked up and taken to Dover harbour with another 150 have arriving hours later.
Smuggler gangs have been moving operations out of previous launcg sites, going as far as Belgium, to dodge French police intercepting beach launches.
There has been a noticeable increase in police patrols around the Dunkirk and Calais areas since UK Government signed a new £662 million security deal with France.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “This Government is bearing down on small boat crossings, with removals of small boat migrants at record levels and asylum claims down by 12 per cent.
“The Home Secretary has signed a landmark new deal with France to boost enforcement action on beaches and put people smugglers behind bars.
“This builds on joint work that has stopped over 42,000 illegal migrants attempting to cross the Channel since the election.
The migrants could be seen reaching out to catch the thrown floatation devices
|GB NEWS
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“We have removed or deported almost 70,000 people who were here illegally – an increase of 41 per cent – and are going further to remove the incentives that draw illegal migrants to this country.”
Today's crossings were the first illegal attempts in more than a fortnight as windy conditions in the English Channel subsided on Sunday.
The total number of migrants making the crossing is around 6,000 fewer than the number who arrived by this same point last year.
However, maritime security sources have told GB News that the reduction in crossings is likely more due to the predominance of windy conditions in the Channel than to any law enforcement activity.