How more than 200 unaccompanied migrant children arrive by boat in Dover EVERY MONTH...and they'll cost Britain millions: SUE REID

A laughing toddler in yellow wellies jumped in puddles outside one of Europe's biggest shanty camps as he waited to set out for Britain this week. The dark-eyed three-year-old was about to join other children in taking a boat ride across the sea to escape life in a tent at the sprawling, squalid and overflowing migrant encampment on the outskirts of the French port of Dunkirk. He is one of dozens and dozens of youngsters - including a baby - who have already arrived or will do so this weekend on traffickers' boats at Dover thanks to improved weather in the Channel.

Since January, thousands of child migrants have made the 21-mile crossing, with no fewer than 2,182 making the trip entirely alone - that's more than 200 a month - according to disturbing figures released to the Daily Mail by Kent County Council this week. While a small number were smuggled inside lorries on ferries, the vast majority made the perilous crossing by boat. And this influx is creating a massive strain on the public purse. An unaccompanied migrant child costs the taxpayer £143 a night to house and support - about £52,000 each a year - according to the latest Home Office figures.

If the child in yellow wellies does make it to Britain, the cost of supporting him for 15 years until adulthood will top £780,000. At Dover on Thursday morning, we photographed children who had come in on a boat from France overnight. One baby, kicking its little feet in white socks, was carried onto the port side in the arms of a Border Force officer. There was not a parent in sight. I have witnessed the boat traffickers in operation for eight years, but I have never seen so many children in their clutches.

A migrant holds a baby on a small boat on a beach in Eccault, France, in August this year. Since January, thousands of child migrants have made the 21 mile crossing, with no fewer than 2,182 making the trip entirely alone - more than 200 a month Migrant arrivals at Dover, including a child, on October 29 2026. Unaccompanied child arrivals by boat in Dover are taken to what is called the Kent Intake Unit on a hill by the port, where they are cared for by social workers A group of migrants, including children are seen heading towards a beach in northern France And that should be a matter of grave concern because the Dunkirk camp is a disgusting place not fit for any child.

The migrants live in hundreds of filthy blue, bell tents given to them by charities and light fires to keep warm. The surrounding trees are festooned with orange lifejackets bought from local sport stores or from an array of camp stalls that also sell them, as the migrants need to be ready to head to the beaches at a moment's notice. While there were some families, with babies carried in their mother's arms or in pushchairs, we saw many, many girls and boys at the camp who did not appear to have their parents with them.

These youngsters played in the dirt, kicking footballs and running around aimlessly. As we walked by, one group of girls, aged perhaps eight or nine, put out their hands for sweets. The migrants arrive at the camp from Africa, the Middle East and other parts of Europe, particularly Germany and Sweden, which are now deporting illegal migrants. They tend to head straight for northern France, lured by the traffickers' boat crossings. We first spotted the toddler in yellow wellies at 11am on Wednesday outside the Dunkirk mega camp.

An hour later, in extraordinary scenes, we saw 400 migrants leave the camp in three groups. Groups of migrants sit at Gravelines train station in northern France. Daily Mail journalist Sue Reid witnessed thousands of youngsters waiting in France to set out on the traffickers' boats, either alone or with their families, in a new migrant crisis for ever-welcoming Britain We followed the one that included the boy. They took the yellow public bus from near the Dunkirk camp, known as 'Loon Plage', which took them to the village of Gravelines a few miles away.

From there the migrants walked to the nearby railway station, the weary child by this time being carried on a man's shoulders. At Gravelines station, the three groups we had seen leaving the camp separately came together on the platform as they waited for the train to Calais. There were so many migrants by now that they were forced to sit, lie or stand three deep on the platform. Some who could not fit on, spilled out onto the shale at each end.

Somehow they all managed to board the train to Calais and, once there, changed platforms to head on towards Boulogne and its long coastline of flat beaches. We know this because we tracked the child in the yellow wellies throughout the day, following him and his migrant group by car and on foot. As we did so, we were spotted by members of the gang, who immediately covered their faces with masks, hoods or scarves in a bid to hide their identities from the Mail's photographer.

One bearded gangster gave us the finger in the street, while another shook his fist as we passed by in our car. It was a reminder, if any were needed, that the gangs running the migrant boats across the Channel are both ruthless and secretive. They organise their multimillion pound criminal operation with the efficiency of an army on manoeuvres, but have not a care for human life. And it is clear that they are now targeting a new kind of customer: children and babies.

The Daily Mail can reveal today that the boat gangs were this week bringing children to the UK for a going rate of £1,500 a head, with the price increasing daily as demand grows for places on their boats. Your browser does not support iframes. Your browser does not support iframes. As three weeks of rough weather halted crossings earlier this month, there is a backlog of 4,000 migrants waiting to leave the Dunkirk camp, which is now the second biggest illegal settlement in the EU after one in Puglia, Italy.

Everyone living there is planning to slip across the Channel for new lives in Britain. 'Demand is so high it is impossible to negotiate the traffickers' price down, even for children or babies,' a 24-year-old Afghan in the camp told me. 'They are hard men, I think there could even be 5,000 people here in Dunkirk all wanting to go to the UK.' Human rights law dictates that a child reaching Britain alone should be given state care until they are 18.

They automatically receive further financial help, such as housing and a living allowance, for another seven years. They cannot be deported until they are 25. Is it any wonder that some migrant families waiting in France are prepared to put their child or children on a boat and let them set off alone in the hope they will get a foothold in the UK? Earlier this month, a migrant baby was photographed on a boat leaving France with a suspected trafficker who held her in one arm while simultaneously using his other hand to hold the outboard engine of the vessel as he guided it towards England.

One legal battle highlighted by the Daily Mail last year involved two boys of six and nine who came in on a boat alone from France to Dover. The children had allegedly been separated from their parents after a chaotic launch resulted in their mother and father being left behind in France. The boys were put into foster care in Kent while the parents, with the help of refugee charities, demanded to join their children in England. Later, the case went to the Court of Appeal, where the Home Office successfully argued that if they were reunited in the UK, rather than France, it would set a dangerous precedent of lone children being put on boats as 'anchors' by parents hoping to follow them.

After many months of legal wrangling the two boys were returned to their parents in Calais. Unaccompanied child arrivals by boat in Dover are taken to what is called the Kent Intake Unit on a hill by the port, where they are cared for by social workers. Within two days, the children are put in the care of foster parents up and down the country, who will look after them until adulthood at a huge cost to the taxpayer. No one is blaming the children for this state of affairs, of course.

They are entirely innocent. But, as I witnessed this week, there are now thousands of youngsters waiting in France to set out on the traffickers' boats, either alone or with their families, in a new migrant crisis for ever-welcoming Britain.