The coronavirus pandemic fuelled a surge in desperate child migrants paying traffickers to smuggle them to Britain, MPs were told today.
A block on legal transfers from France during the outbreak “pushed them further into the hands of smugglers” arranging inflatable boats across the English Channel, the Commons Home Affairs Committee was told.
MPs are investigating the UK's attraction to migrants after the number making the perilous voyage across the Dover Strait in small boats so far this year topped 6,000.
The temporary halt of family reunion cases during the Covid-19 pandemic led to migrants paying criminals to help them reach Britain, according to Safe Passage UK chief executive Beth Gardiner-Smith.