Almost 4,000 migrants are camping in northern France waiting to cross to Britain by small boat, double the usual number, it has emerged.

The Home Office’s Border Security Commander Duncan Capps said French authorities estimate there are 3,800 people in camps between Calais and Dunkirk.

He also told the Commons’ home affairs select committee that migrants typically make ‘seven or eight’ attempts before they successfully cross the Channel.

Asked how many migrants were waiting to cross, Mr Capps said: ‘I think the French estimate at the moment is that there is almost 3,800 people between those two camps.

‘Previously it was broadly about 2,000 between them.

‘So our understanding now from our French partners we work with closely is almost double what we would normally expect.’

He added: ‘There are a lot of people in the camps at the moment, which I think is bad in one respect because a lot of people are there but it also represents the fact that the French are making it very difficult, particularly in the Dunkirk-Calais area, to get across.

‘There is a moment with this from a criminal perspective where it stops being particularly viable.

‘And part of our strategy is to drive it to a point where it is not worth them doing this because the cost of getting the boat, the engine, the risk of them being interdicted and jailed, is so much that actually they stop being in this business.’

Those waiting to cross are predominantly single men and the most common nationalities are Eritrean, Sudanese, Somali, Ethiopian and Afghan, he added.

So far this year the number of small boat crossings is down 43 per cent on the same point last year, at just under 21,000.

Director general of operations at the National Crime Agency, Rob Jones, told the committee: ‘The fact that there are more migrants in northern France is not a good thing - it shows the intent is high but it shows they are struggling to make the crossing.’

He added that the fall in crossings showed the business model deployed by trafficking gangs is ‘starting to shake’ and the NCA is ‘actively working’ to anticipate how smugglers may attempt to change tactics in the future.

The admission that some migrants make seven or eight attempts to cross the Channel will further undermine the Home Office’s claim that ‘more than 50,000 attempts by migrants to cross the Channel by small boat have been prevented since the 2024 General Election’.

Migrants who are stopped by French beach patrols are not detained – and are free to try again.

It means the 50,000 figure could be counting some people up to eight times.

Mr Capps said two small boats reached UK shores without being intercepted by Border Force last month because they took place on ‘busy days’ on the Channel and were only spotted when they were 2.5 miles (4km) off the UK coast.

It meant it had been impossible to deploy Home Office vessels to meet them in the Channel, he added.

The typical charges smuggling gangs demand for an illegal crossing have ‘broadly come down' to £840 to £1,700 (1,000 to 2,000 euros) a head, Mr Capps said.

Mr Jones said the unsafe dinghies used by traffickers typically cost them about £14,000.