Priti Patel will introduce life sentences for people smugglers in a new bid to tackle the Channel migrant crisis.
Maximum sentences will increase from the current 14 years under legislation to be brought forward by the Home Secretary in the next few weeks.
It comes after one boat of migrants which crossed the Channel on Saturday was escorted into British waters by the French Navy.
According to the Sun, a French warship escorted the boat of about 10 men for more than an hour.
The boat then had to be rescued by Border Force officials when it ran out of fuel.
It was one of several boats that crossed the Channel at the weekend which the UK has paid France millions to try and prevent.
One group who said they were from Syria told the newspaper they had paid £1,000 each to make the journey.
Home Secretary Priti Patel is concerned that penalties being handed down by the courts to people smugglers are too short, The Times reported.
The current average length of a jail term for ‘assisting illegal immigration’ is three years.
The move comes just months after it was revealed a high-tech command centre, situated at a secret location in Dover, Kent, had been set up by the Home Secretary to help catch people smugglers ferrying migrants.
Priti Patel is concerned that penalties being handed down by the courts are too short and will introduce life sentences for people smugglers
A Home Office spokesman said: ‘While criminal gangs continue to put lives at risk, it is right we consider every option to stop their exploitation of people.
‘The Government will set out further details in the coming weeks.’
The Home Office has scaled up the use of criminal offences against migrants who are seen at the helm of dinghies and small boats.
On February 18, a Kuwaiti man who steered an overcrowded boat across the Channel with 11 other migrants on board was jailed for three years and nine months.
Mahmoud Al Anzi, 24, had denied a charge of assisting unlawful immigration to the UK during his trial at…
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