Channel migrants offered special Christmas cut-price crossings of £300 per person

The prices are less than a third the 3,000 Euros traffickers were charging in September

Credit: Ryan Sosna-Bowd/Getty Images

Channel migrants are being offered special Christmas cut-price crossings for as little as £300 per person, say intelligence sources.

The cost is averaging between £500 and £1,000 with the lowest at £300, as traffickers have slashed prices to attract migrants fearful of winter seas and an increased police presence on French beaches, according to Border Force and police intelligence.

Border Force and the National Crime Agency (NCA) are braced for a surge on Christmas and Boxing Day – as happened last year – as the traffickers exploit the calmer seas expected over Christmas when fewer border officers are on duty.

The average prices are less than a third the 3,000 Euros that traffickers were charging in September, one of the peak months for crossings.

Home Office sources believe the prices have been depressed by competition between the trafficking gangs for fewer migrants as new measures to combat the crossings begin to bite.

Home Secretary Priti Patel agreed to pay France £28 million to double the number of officers patrolling beaches and increase surveillance with drones and CCTV to stop migrants crossing the Channel.

Border Force and police are stepping up operations over the two-week festive period in anticipation of a surge, emulating last year when Christmas and Boxing Day saw some of the largest numbers of arrivals on single days.

Traffickers are also said to be using Brexit as an incentive by warning migrants that it will be harder to secure asylum in the UK after the transition period ends on December 31.

A Home Office source said: “These vile criminals will stop at nothing to illegally smuggle people into the UK. The latest wheeze is cut-throat prices to exploit vulnerable women and children, enticing them to put lives on the line in a deadly crossing to the UK.

“Our security services are doing everything they can to go after the criminals behind this human trade.”

More than 8,500 migrants have reached the UK via small boats this year, seven times the number in 2019.