Migrants are now using a shocking new ruse to reach British shores - making fake drowning distress calls to force French rescuers to escort them safely to Dover.

The cunning ploy sees people smugglers instruct their human cargo to phone for help and pretend they are at risk of drowning in their dinghies while crossing the Channel.

French coast guard and Navy vessels race to rescue them, but when they arrive they realise there is no emergency whatsoever. However, rescue crews then have to stay with the migrants in case the situation genuinely deteriorates - meaning British Border Force vessels are sent out to bring them safely to Dover.

Furious French officials have described what the migrants are doing as "abusive" but say their hands are completely tied by maritime law.

Gerard Barron, of the French Societe Nationale de Sauvetage en Mer, revealed the shocking new tactics being deployed by ruthless people smugglers.

He said: "This new strategy is to ask the people on the small boat to call for help and say they are in trouble when they are not.

"The smugglers tell the migrants, 'Like that, you will be escorted'.

"When you arrive there, the boat has nothing wrong.

"What they want is to be accompanied to British waters.

"We stay behind and we wait.

"It is abusive but we cannot do otherwise.

"We can't turn around.

"What if the boat sinks a few minutes later?"

The revelation comes as the number of small boat migrants to land in the UK since Labour won power last summer has soared past a staggering 50,000.

Reform UK MP Lee Anderson blasted the new tactics, saying: "If they are making Mayday calls, they should be picked up and taken back to France.

"The French and British authorities are being hoodwinked on a daily basis by boat loads of criminals."