A 'mega dinghy' carrying a record 106 migrants was detected in the Channel, prompting fears of more deaths.

Smugglers crammed the staggering number of people into "grossly overcrowded taxi boat" that somehow stayed afloat for 15 hours.

The Home Office said it "is a matter of pure chance" it did not sink.

The huge boat has prompted fears the criminal gangs are now using a similar design to that of vessels used in the Mediterranean.

Last year's record death toll - 78 - coincided with an increase in the size of the boats the smugglers used.

A Home Office spokesperson said: "Last night we intercepted a 10m soft bottomed vessel transporting 106 people across the Channel illegally. It is a matter of pure chance that this grossly overcrowded taxi boat survived more than fifteen hours at sea, and it again shows the complete disregard people smugglers have for whether people live or die.

"We will stop at nothing to dismantle the business models of those smuggling gangs and bring them to justice. That is why this government has put together a serious and comprehensive plan to take down their networks at every stage.

"Through international intelligence sharing under our Border Security Command, enhanced enforcement operations in Northern France, and tougher legislation in the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, we are strengthening our ability to identify, disrupt, and dismantle the gangs.

"This latest incident also shows the importance of the agreement we have reached with the French authorities to review their maritime enforcement tactics, so that they are able for the first time to intercept boats in shallow waters and prevent taxi boats from parking offshore to collect large numbers of migrants unhindered."

One senior maritime security source told GB News: "This is highly alarming. It looks like the smuggling gangs have specified larger boats, which we know are designed and built in back street factories in China.

"Bigger boats mean bigger numbers of arrivals, at a time when we're already seeing record numbers crossing from France.

"If we are witnessing the advent of a new, larger migrant boat, this is the worst possible news for those attempting to smash the gangs."

The number of boats carrying 80 or more people has spiked in the past six months. Home Office sources have revealed more than 50 dinghies have been detected since April 2024 with more than 80 asylum seekers onboard.

More than a third of those have arrived in the past two months. By contrast, five years ago the dinghies typically had about 15 on board, sources said, and smugglers have been driven by greed to cram more people on helpful calmer seas.

A Labour minister this week attempted to claim that the record number of Channel crossings so far this year was not the party's fault.

Baroness Smith, a Government minister, said: "This is a problem that, up to this point, we haven't managed to tackle in terms of the numbers who are coming here.

"But it is a completely legitimate claim to say that that is because what is happening is the result of the last government that chose to focus on gimmicks with the Rwanda scheme that returned four volunteers."

A record number of migrants have crossed the Channel in each of the last five months. Analysis of Home Office figures show 4,586 people were detected in March, a 44% increase on the previous high of 3,180 in 2024.

The rise in April was even sharper, with the recorded total of 4,432 103% higher than the 2,176 arrivals in 2023. May's 3,738 was 28% higher than 2022. But the months of June and July show the scale of the crisis Labour is facing.

In June, 5,170 migrants crossed the Channel, up from 3,823 in 2023 - an increase of 35%. And July's total of 5,454 represented an increase of 48% from 3,687 in 2022. Senior maritime security sources have told GB News the new "mega dingy" recovered from UK waters overnight is of a design seen in the Mediterranean recently.