The UK Home Office has revealed that many of the boats being used by migrants to cross the English Channel are now being purchased in China to then be imported to Eastern Europe and later be used by smugglers.
A court in Bruges announced on Wednesday that police had arrested six men "of Middle-Eastern origin" on the suspicion of migrant smuggling. The six were stopped in the Belgian port of Ostend in possession of two inflatable speedboats.
Eight migrants remain missing after trying to cross from Belgium to the United Kingdom. A total of 14 people are believed to have set out from De Panne but were forced to swim back to shore when their boat capsized. Six of the migrants, who are from Afghanistan and Iran, were taken in custody on Tuesday.