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People smugglers are offering female asylum seekers cheaper Channel crossings in exchange for sex, a report has said. Lone women are said to be the main target for smuggling gang members in Calais and Dunkirk. Gang members have also been accused of trying to separate girls from their parents in attempts to abuse them more easily. Two migrants claimed children have been molested by smugglers.

An undercover investigation by The Telegraph has also revealed how some migrants swallow packs of heroin and cocaine to pay for their passage to Britain. Dealers are handed the packages once the migrants arrive in the UK, according to the same publication. One woman described being threatened by a Kurdish smuggler in Dunkirk who pointed a gun at her head and tried to grab her. He let go when another man intervened. She said: "It was awful... The nightmares still haven't gone."

News of the exploitation in northern France comes after a 2022 report by the British Red Cross and UNHCR found asylum seekers have been forced into committing crimes and exploited sexually and in work.

The latest figures from The Migration Observatory (TMO) at Oxford University show 36,954 people arrived by small boat as of November 2.

Seventy percent of those making the crossing between 2018 and 2024 came from Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, Albania and Syria, according to TMO.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said European leaders should review how the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) is interpreted in law to tackle illegal migration and prevent voters from turning to "forces that seek to divide us".

In an opinion piece for the Guardian newspaper, the PM and his Danish counterpart, Mette Frederiksen, advocated for a tougher approach to policing Europe's borders as a means of winning against populist political opponents.

The ECHR, which underpins Britain's Human Rights Act, is seen by its critics as a major barrier to attempts to deport illegal migrants from the country.

The right to family life, enshrined by article 8 of the agreement, is often used as grounds in legal cases to prevent removals.

European ministers, including Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy, are due to meet in Strasbourg, France, on Wednesday to discuss reforming how the treaty is interpreted in the courts.

Both the Conservatives and Reform UK have said they would leave the ECHR if in power.

Amnesty International UK hit out at Britain's plans to lead reforms of the ECHR, describing it as weakening protections.

Steve Valdez-Symonds, Amnesty International UK's refugee and migrant rights programme director, said: "There is a dreadful irony in our Justice Secretary working with his counterparts to remove or reduce rights on the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

"It shows how far we have drifted from the moral resolve of the last century, when our grandparents determined that the fact we are all born free and equal must be protected in law."

Elsewhere, French far-right leader Jordan Bardella told the Daily Telegraph newspaper he would rewrite French border policy to allow British patrol boats to push back migrant dinghies into France's waters, if he led the country.

The National Rally leader and French MEP is currently leading in opinion polls to win the first round of France's next presidential elections, expected in 2027.