UK police chief asks China to stop exporting engines used for small boats

National Crime Agency (NCA) chiefs are in talks with China to persuade it to stop exporting engines used on dinghies crossing the Channel.

Graeme Biggar, the director general of the NCA, revealed on Thursday that he had started “conversations” with the Chinese, whose outboard motor manufacturers are the main suppliers of engines used for small boats.

The NCA seized about 450 boats and engines early last year, the bulk of which have been produced in China, transported to Turkey and then, with the makeshift dinghies, taken to Germany, where they are stored before being used in Channel crossings.

NCA investigators aim to build a case to convince the Chinese that engines are largely being used to illegally transport thousands of migrants across the Channel – and putting their lives at risk because the motors are so low-powered.

“They’ve been selected by the crime groups that use them as cheap and just good enough with a following wind, literally, to get you across [the Channel],” said Rob Jones, the NCA’s director general in charge of operations.

He said the NCA aimed to demonstrate to the Chinese that such low-powered engines, normally designed for use on inland waterways or lakes, were being exploited by the gangs.

“You can begin to build a case to the Chinese about this that it’s probably going to be tied to organised immigration crime. They’re obviously Chinese companies, not Chinese state. So, we are going into their police to indicate that it’s important and to get cooperation,” he said.

The move is part of an enhanced strategy, co-ordinated by the new Border Security Command, to attempt to choke off the supply routes of the people smuggling gangs.

The Home Office and NCA are also working with the EU to introduce new regulations across Europe that would make it a civil offence to be caught in possession of an unseaworthy boat either sneaking it across a border or transporting it across Europe.

The dinghies being used to cross the Channel are purpose-made from cheap rubber and so unsafe that they were “little more than a paddling pool, which hasn’t got the structural rigidity to support 50 or 60 people,” said Mr Jones.

However, it was not illegal to possess an “improvised” boat, engine or substandard life jacket. By making a civil offence, customs and law enforcement could detect, seize and destroy them and fine anyone caught with them.

The NCA is also working with Home Office officials to see whether they could emulate counter-terrorism legislation by introducing a new criminal offence of preparing an act of smuggling.

This could make it easier to prosecute people smugglers if investigators could show the seized engines and dinghies were intended to transport migrants across the Channel.

“What we need to do as a system is, where it’s appropriate, criminalise as much of their business model as possible,” said Mr Jones.

“That’s why the potential for new regulation, treating these unsafe vessels as something that shouldn’t be allowed to move across borders, because there is no legitimate use for them, and they are dangerous and people will die in them, is an important part of what we’re trying to do.”

Although the ultimate aim is to stop the boats, the disruption of the supply will push up the cost for the gangs as smaller legal dinghies would only be able to carry a fraction of the current loads of up to 80 migrants and would be more expensive to buy.

NCA chiefs also revealed that they had managed to take down 7,000 social media posts put up by the gangs advertising Channel crossings to migrants, up from 5,000 last year and 2,000 in 2022.