Over 3,000 illegal migrants have landed on British soil after crossing the English Channel so far this year, doubling last year’s record-setting levels, as criminal gangs continue to outwit the Home Office.

A report from the National Crime Agency (NCA) revealed that organised criminal gangs have been lured into the illegal migration trade along the Channel due to the “high success rate” and large profits.

The NCA claimed that illegal crossings increased amid the coronavirus crisis as a result of limits on normal means of travel as well as more stringent border controls on freight and rail entry into the UK.

So far this year, at least 3,100 boat migrants have landed in the UK, compared to 1,600 at this time last year, the Daily Telegraph reported. Should the pace of migration continue, the paper noted, around 15,000 would land by the end of the year, doubling last years’ record 8,713.

The increase would also represent a 500 per cent jump over 2019 and some 30 times more than the level seen in 2018, according to data compiled by the Migration Watch UK think tank.

The NCA also revealed that criminal gangs have begun using larger boats to ferry illegal migrants across the Channel and have “attempted to transport migrants into the UK using larger vessels landing at small ports away from the Dover Strait.”

“Migrants transported via this method have a higher chance of being exploited by UK-based criminals than those detected by law enforcement arriving by small boat,” the report added.

The findings from the National Crime Agency were published just one day after Home Secretary Priti Patel gave a speech to the Bright Blue and British Future think tanks on migration.

In her speech, Patel repeated her vow to impose life prison sentences for people smugglers to crack down on the vicious trade and that migrants who enter illegally will be prohibited from being granted leave to remain status.

She claimed that the government will look to give Border Force officials the power to turn back boats in the English Channel, however, this would be contingent on securing an agreement with France to return the migrants — a prospect which at this point is dubious at best.

Patel also raised eyebrows among Brexiteers by controversially pronouncing that there is “such a thing as too little immigration” because it could drive down economic growth through labour shortages.

Speaking with Breitbart London, Bow Group chairman Ben Harris-Quinney said that while it is debatable that immigration fuels short term economic growth, he said that it also comes with a heavy cost through strains on public services, rising living costs, and an overall decrease in standards of living and happiness.

Priti Patel’s decision to give the speech before Bright Blue and British Future was also questioned by the Bow Group chairman, who noted that the “backers of these organisations tend to be pro-remain, pro-mass immigration, and pro- the liberal metropolitan agenda.”

“It is a very bad sign that Priti Patel chose to lay out her immigration vision to them,” Harris-Quinney warned.

The chairman of the UK’s oldest conservative think tank noted that the scale of modern mass migration has been “so extreme it will change our nation more than any single policy in our history.”

Harris-Quinney said that even if the government completely shut down immigration for the next decade, the “demographic shifts in Britain will be extreme due to the last three decades of mass immigration, and dealing with that will require a very strong policy programme to promote unity and nationhood, or we are likely to see an ever more divided country year on year.”

The Bow Group chief said that the Conservative Party has “sold the lie” to the public that Brexit would mean “taking back control of immigration”.

“All of their policies have been towards a relaxing of immigration controls. People did not vote for Brexit because they wanted to see fewer European migrants but more global migrants, they wanted to see immigration to massively fall as a whole,” Harris-Quinney said.

He said that he has “no confidence at all” in the Conservatives actually reducing the level of immigration, saying that Britain needs figures like Nigel Farage to hold the party to account on the issue of migration as was necessary to secure Brexit.

“I encourage people to look at the shocking figures on levels of immigration and demographic shifts in this country, rather than the rhetoric of the Conservative Party which has consistently proven to be lies.”

Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka