A boat carrying a staggering 125 migrants was detected crossing the Channel, smashing the previous record.
The alarming discovery, which comes after smugglers vowed to ramp up their operations in the Channel, will concern the Home Office.
Some 895 arrived on 12 boats on Saturday.
Among them was a boat carrying 125 people. The previous record was 106.
Channel smugglers have vowed to expand their networks and launch even bigger boats, with criminals believing they could send 2,000 people in dinghies every day.
They also claimed the Home Office would have to deport 2,000 a week for it to be a deterrent.
Some 1,072 people were detected in 13 boats last Friday, meaning a shocking average of 82 were crammed into unseaworthy vessels as smugglers exploited a narrow window of good weather.
And 85 people were detected on a single boaton Saturday, continuing the alarming trend of bigger boats.
It takes the number of people who have made the crossing so far in 2025 to 32,188.
A period of high winds has led to a pause in Channel migrant crossings.
Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy claimed the scheme was providing an “immediate deterrent” – despite 1,072 arriving on the day he said it.
He said: “It has been very important to increase the numbers of people that we are returning to the countries from which they are from, and that’s gone up 14%… I played an important role in that as foreign secretary and that work must continue.
“This pilot with France is a milestone because it sends an immediate deterrent to people, many of them coming obviously across the water, that we will send them back, and it is our hope to see that grow over the coming months and years because we have to bear down on the gangs and we have to smash the model effectively and we have to ensure that those who do not have a right to be here are sent back to the countries from which they are from.”
Donald Trump advised Sir Keir Starmer to call in the military to stop Channel migrant crossings.
The US President warned the Prime Minister that illegal immigration “destroys countries from within”, adding that it’s a “very hard chore” to carry out a mass deportation programme.
