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The record-breaking mega-dinghy which reached Britain with 230 migrants was originally carrying more than 260 passengers including children when it almost sank, it has emerged.

When the overloaded boat – which was designed for a maximum of 40 people – was battered by choppy waters, at least 30 people were thrown into the English Channel.

A photo shows them floating in the sea before they were rescued by French police and gendarmes, who have a controversial policy of not intercepting small boats at sea because they claim it could could endanger those on board.

French lifeboatmen yesterday described how scores of men, women and children packed onto the vessel on a beach between Berck-sur-Mer and Merlimont, south of Le Touquet, on Sunday afternoon.

A spokesman for the SNSM voluntary sea rescue organisation – France's equivalent of the RNLI – said all had been hiding in sand dunes after paying people smugglers for a passage.

He said: 'A veritable tide then rushed the approximately 15-meter (49ft) inflatable boat. Due to overloading, several people were thrown from the vessel – around thirty ended up in the water as the craft continued on its way.'

The picture released by the SNSM at Berck shows dozens of mainly young men floundering in the Channel, following the initial boarding soon after 5pm.

Jean-Marc Lamblin, director of the SNSM's Berck-sur-Mer branch, said he was seeing ever-larger boats being used by smuggling gangs and there was 'no limit' to how many people they would cram on board.

Around 30 migrants floating in the Channel after being flung from the mega-dinghy (left)

A dramatic photo released by the French lifeboat service showed the boat almost sinking

The boat after it carried on its journey with a record-breaking 160 migrants onboard

Migrants run towards the beach to board the dinghy at a beach in northern France yesterday

'Over the past three months, we've been seeing more and more 15-metre boats passing through,' he said.

He added that when the one 50-migrants per boat figure was surpassed at the end of last month, 'we didn't think there could be any more, but there really is no limit now'.

Labour's attempts to tackle the Channel crisis have been branded a 'complete laughing stock' after yesterday's record arrival – which comes just two weeks after Andy Burnham insisted the Government's plan was working.

With 130 people aboard, the dinghy had more passengers onboard than the capacity of a Boeing 737 jet.

Measuring 49ft from bow to stern, it was 7ft larger than vessels which set previous records last month, and more than 10ft longer than a standard double-decker bus.

People traffickers are thought to charge around £2,000 a head for illegal passage to Britain, meaning the dinghy could have made the criminals a staggering £450,000 profit.

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: 'Labour's weak attempts at fixing the Channel crisis have turned the UK into a complete laughing stock. Shabana Mahmood is presiding over a complete and utter farce.

'She's handing over £660million of our money to the French, who are pathetically standing around on the beaches while hundreds of migrants embark on massive dinghies.'

He also criticised the gendarmes' inability to halt such a behemoth, adding: 'This is now beyond a joke. The French authorities could easily have stopped a vessel this size from embarking in shallow waters.

'I recently saw for myself French gendarmes shamefully standing by and doing nothing while illegal immigrants boarded in knee-deep water.

'Out-of-touch Andy Burnham claims there is no problem. There clearly is. If he was serious he would adopt the Conservative plan to leave the European Convention on Human Rights and deport all illegal immigrants within a week of arrival. Then the crossings would soon stop.'

Official figures up until Sunday show that 15,242 small-boat migrants have arrived this year. And 2,773 – not including Monday's mega-dinghy – have arrived since Mr Burnham became Prime Minister on July 20.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said small-boat crossings should be declared a 'national security emergency', adding that illegal arrivals were 'out of control'.

Reform home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf said the mega-dinghy was 'nothing short of a national humiliation', adding: 'Britain's borders are now a standing joke with people smugglers who are laughing all the way to the bank, knowing they can operate with impunity.'

Since smugglers began using the new generation of mega-dinghies last month, two are known to have reached the mid-point of the Channel, the world's busiest shipping lane, leading to migrants being picked up by UK Border Force and brought into Dover.

The previous record was 165 aboard one vessel on July 23. A third dinghy, with 173 on board, triggered a major emergency when it caught fire early in its journey last week, and its occupants were returned to France.

The new debacle came after a Home Office source insisted on Friday that Labour's plan to tackle the Channel crisis was 'beginning to bear fruit'.

Monday's mega-dinghy was 'buckling' in the water and could have led to a tragedy, French rescuers said.

The confirmed 230 arrivals - pictured - is more than the typical capacity of a Boeing 737 jet

On Sunday French police did nothing more than watch as a baby and toddlers were carried on to a dinghy to England

The lifeboat crew at Berck-sur-Mer said it was already carrying about 50 passengers when it was spotted heading towards a beach to pick up more.

The SNMS team, the equivalent of the RNLI, said around 30 people ended up in the water during the rush to climb on board at 5pm on Sunday.

Part of the group became cut off by the tide and had to be rescued, and the overloaded dinghy was described as 'buckling under the swell' as it headed towards the UK.

It was carrying 232 migrants until two asked for assistance and were taken to Calais. Also on Sunday, French police looked on as dozens of migrants climbed on to a boat off Camiers beach, south of Boulogne, with babies among the group.

Last week UK officials confirmed traffickers were adapting their methods in a bid to circumvent Labour's 'smash the gangs' strategy.

Labour scrapped the previous Conservative government's Rwanda asylum deal and has instead attempted to tackle the crisis through improved work by police and other law enforcement agencies.

But officials admitted it had led smuggling gangs to 'experiment' with mega-dinghies, potentially increasing the risk of a mass tragedy.

Organised crime rings are also deploying co-ordinated dinghy launches from a wider area of the French and Belgian coast in a bid to evade detection.

Ms Mahmood signed a new security deal with the French in April that will see £662million handed over by the British taxpayer over three years.

A deflated dinghy is seen on the quayside in Dover, Kent after a record 230 migrants arrived after crossing the Channel

Life jackets for sale at the French sports superstore Decathlon in Dunkirk

She said it was a 'landmark agreement' that would 'really arm us to go after the people-smugglers'.

But Mr Philp visited a French beach last month and witnessed gendarmes standing by as small boats disembarked – and even refusing to arrest an apparent people-trafficker.

David Goodhart, an immigration expert at the Policy Exchange think-tank, said of the latest mega-dinghy: 'This is a violation of territory and political common sense.

'Such an enormous boat crossing underlines the ineffectiveness of French controls, and our own Government's impotence.' He added: 'The solution remains the same: no one who enters illegally is allowed to stay.

'It remains a bewildering failure of international cooperation, and British diplomacy, that France does not agree to accept back anyone who crosses illegally.

'Andy Burnham should be using whatever charm or leverage he has with French president Emmanuel Macron to insist on Channel common sense.'

The Home Office said: 'We are making progress, with the number of small-boat crossings down this year and the lowest number recorded for July since 2020.

'But we must go further, which is why we have signed a payment-by-results deal with the French to put 40 per cent more boots on the ground on French beaches.'

The statement continues: 'The mass movement during boarding posed a major risk, especially given that many of those present could not swim.

'With the rising tide, part of the group quickly became cut off. Gendarmes and firefighters intervened to bring these individuals to safety.'

The statement adds: 'Coordinating all the deployed resources helped avert a tragedy during this particularly dangerous phase.'

The China-made PVC boat was buckling in the sea, as a swell picked up, he said, but still managed to get out into open sea, with at least 20 children on board.

An SNSM boat tracked the mega-dinghy from 5.15pm until 7.45pm, along with the Abeille Normandie [Normandy Bee], the French rescue ship, and – later – the Minck, another rescue boat.

There was no attempt to interfere with the boat, in line with a French policy of not risking lives by trying to stop boats at sea.

The SNSM spokesman said: 'We are the sea rescuers. Our mission is to assist anyone in distress or danger at sea, regardless of the cause of the distress or the background of the person being rescued.'

The mega-dinghy was eventually escorted to England by the UK Border Force, HM Coastguard and the RNLI, so beating the previous record of 165 migrants who reached Britain on a single boat in July.

Such mega-dinghies are increasingly being used, as smugglers attempt to increase their profits.

Last week, 173 people were packed on to a single boat but it disintegrated off the French coast after catching fire, as everyone on board was rescued, some with minor burns.

The Egyptian people smuggler who piloted the boat has since been sentenced to a year in prison.

The 25-year-old man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was beginning his sentence in France on Saturday, following a fast-track trial held on Friday for 'facilitating the illegal entry, movement, or stay of foreign nationals in France' by 'coordinating and piloting the departure on an inflatable boat'.

A judge also ruled that these acts were committed 'under circumstances directly exposing the foreign nationals to an immediate risk of death or injuries likely to result in mutilation or permanent disability'.

Such crimes are punishable by up to five years in prison, and a fine equivalent to £26,000.

The man was told he would be deported from France after serving his sentence, and his mobile phone was confiscated permanently.

He continually denied any wrongdoing, arguing that he was a legitimate asylum seeker who wanted to settle in the UK.

Smugglers are said to have charged at least £1000 a head for a place on the 12meter boat that the man was piloting, ensuring a massive profit.

At least 15 UK-bound migrants have died in the Channel this year, either by drowning or suffocating in a small boat because of overcrowding.

Three women and a man were found dead on the beaches close to Dunkirk and Calais the week before last.

The worst tragedy of this kind came in November 2021, when 27 migrants died after a dinghy sank while heading to the UK – the highest recorded number of deaths from a single incident.

More than 15,000 people have reached England on small boats this year – a figure down by around 40 per cent compared to the same period in 2025.