Germany seizes 9,000 life jackets in first raids under new UK smuggling law

August 18, 2026 at 10:02 AM2 min

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German police carried out the first raids under a new law targeting small-boat smugglers this spring, seizing more than 9,000 life jackets, dozens of dinghies and engines, and 360 pumps during a joint UK-France-Germany operation in North Rhine-Westphalia. The equipment, now stored at a secret location in western Germany, could have carried more than 2,000 migrants across the English Channel, the UK's National Crime Agency estimated.

Key Facts

Germany's Interior Ministry confirmed the raids marked the first enforcement measures under the new law, but did not confirm whether the law had been applied more than once.
Berlin passed the law last December making it a specific criminal offence to facilitate migrant smuggling to the UK.
Before the change, key German anti-smuggling laws applied only to countries within the EU's free movement zone, not to post-Brexit Britain.
The UK's National Crime Agency estimated the equipment could have carried more than 2,000 people across the Channel, about 65 per dinghy.

Secret Police Warehouse

The BBC was given special access to an undisclosed police storehouse in western Germany where the seized dinghies and equipment are stored. Dinghies that officials say measure approximately 9m are deflated and mainly packaged in cardboard boxes. The life jackets are tightly bundled and wrapped in plastic, and their bright orange covers are stuffed with poly-foam. A tag on the life jackets has Chinese lettering.

Channel Smuggling Network

Gangs have long used garages or warehouses in western Germany to store equipment before transporting it to northern France. In 2024, Germany said it would tighten its laws to make it easier to prosecute those helping to ferry migrants to the UK. The UK's National Crime Agency first revealed in June that the equipment could have carried more than 2,000 people, about 65 per dinghy. Oxford's Migration Observatory said the emergence of mega dinghies is likely connected to increased enforcement, giving smugglers an additional incentive to fit as many people as possible into available boats.