GETTY An overloaded boat on its way to Europe

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The seas surrounding Britain and continental Europe risk becoming the "Wild West" as jihadis, people traffickers and drug smugglers switch from land routes which have had borders beefed up in the wake of the migrant crisis. Despite police and even the army being drafted in to control land borders, maritime experts said the weak link in protecting Europe and Britain against jihadi warfare is the out of date police patrols on sea routes. In the last two months, more than 50 ships were identified in European waters with invalid or stolen identities, having entered through Europe's "back door".

And Ami Daniel, co-founder and CEO of maritime data and analytics company Windward, said it was still remarkably easy for illegal boat loads of migrants - some of whom could be sent by Islamic State (ISIS) affiliates based in north Africa - to enter Europe. Speaking to Express.co.uk, he said: "As Europe cracks down on its own land borders, the ocean will become more of a Wild West. "Terrorist activity is being squeezed out into the oceans. "We are seeing that a lot of illegal goods end up in the wrong hands - money, bad people, drugs, terrorists, coming from anywhere in the world."

Migrant Crisis: Mass exodus from the migrant camp continues Tue, October 25, 2016 Hundreds of migrants are continuing to arrive in Europe as they flee the scenes of chaos and brutality of the Islamic State in the Middle East. Play slideshow 1 of 224

Data released by Windward shows in December alone, more than 600 ships entered European waters from three countries where terrorist groups operate - Libya, Syria and Lebanon. The maritime security expert warned Europe's borders were being put at risk by "antiquated" policing methods, including manual searches of shipping logs and watch lists that often proved to be out of date. He added: "In today's world you don't necessarily know who's going to come and you can't manually vet over 9,000 vessels a month. "Everyone is trying to do their best but using antiquated methods to do it." "The world has changed in the last few years - we need to be sharing information and you have to use technology to solve the problem."

GETTY The Mediterranean links north Africa and the Middle East with Europe

GETTY More packed boats full of migrants and refugees fleeing war and economic hardship