Inside secret police warehouse as Germany targets small boats gangs

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Inside a warehouse in a secret location in Germany, thousands of life jackets and dozens of dinghies are stacked on top of each other after being seized in a raid on smuggling gangs.

Germany has become a staging post for criminals organising crossings on the English Channel, and authorities have now carried out their first raids under a new law making it a crime to facilitate migrant smuggling to the UK.

The boats could have taken more than 2,000 migrants across the Channel illegally, the UK's National Crime Agency said.

Smuggling gangs have long used garages or warehouses to store equipment in western Germany before transporting it to northern France.

Until recently, however, key anti-smuggling laws in Germany only applied to nations within the EU's zone of free movement, not to third countries, which included the UK after Brexit.

Image caption, Thousands of life jackets, covered in plastic wrapping, were seized by the German authorities in the spring

Raids have happened in Germany before, but often relied on French or Belgian warrants.

In 2024, Germany said it would tighten its laws to make it easier to prosecute those helping to ferry migrants to the UK, as part of a new plan agreed between the two countries.

Germany's Interior Ministry confirmed that these raids marked the first time enforcement measures had been taken under the new law, but did not confirm if the law had been employed more than once.

In June, when the National Crime Agency first revealed the raids had happened, it was estimated that the equipment could have taken more than 2,000 people across the Channel - which would work out to about 65 people per dinghy.

That number is less than the so-called mega dinghies seen this summer but matches recent averages as well as the general trend of rising passenger numbers.

Image caption, The deflated dinghies are packaged in cardboard boxes

Oxford's Migration Observatory, external believes the emergence of these mega dinghies is likely connected to increased enforcement, as there is an "additional incentive for smugglers to fit as many people as possible into available boats".

Gangs are prone to adapt - rather than abandon - their money-making schemes when supply lines are disrupted.

The life jackets in the warehouse are tightly bundled and wrapped in plastic. Their bright orange covers are stuffed with little more than what feels like poly-foam -completely inadequate for the open and unpredictable waters of the English Channel.

The tag has Chinese lettering. Much of the equipment used for small boats is known to be produced there before being transported to Europe, often via Turkey.

A well-known entry point from Turkey into the EU is at the Bulgarian land border.

Customs officials recently found 20 undeclared inflatable dinghies hidden between mattress pads at a Turkish-Bulgarian border crossing. The truck driver had been heading for Germany.

British investigators believe Kurdish criminal networks hold a particularly controlling grip over the small boats business in western Germany - a region that has become a hub for migrants.

According to one German official, gangs operate out of Germany because many of them live there.

Western Germany is also close - but not too close - to the more heavily patrolled beaches of northern France from where migrant boats launch.

Image caption, Much of the equipment used for small boat crossings is produced in China

Local prosecutors warn that Germany's amended legal provision is, so far, largely untested.

Lawyer Bernhard Schmeilzl, who specialises in UK-German law, points out that the legal situation is essentially as it was before Brexit.

However, he believes it will make a difference, even if stretched German law enforcement agencies may be more likely to focus on domestic matters.

"This now enables the German police to go after these people," he says. "If they are being notified about such suspicious activity, they will have to investigate."

Channel crossings overall are on course to be lower this year, but illegal entries into Europe have also been falling.

The UK Home Office says its work with countries like Germany "is bearing fruit".

The UK government reports a drop of roughly 43% in the number of people who have made crossings between 1 January and 8 August this year, compared to the same period last year. It attributes this to efforts in disrupting the supply of boats to the gangs, and getting more law enforcement on French beaches.

But opposition politicians have said the decline is due to adverse conditions in the Channel, including wave height - not the direct result of action taken by the government.

Germany to tighten people-smuggling law in UK deal

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