Migrants attempting to cross the English channel under the cover of darkness are being rescued just minutes from death, but at least ten boats are believed to have made it to the UK in the last month.

Since October, at least 28 vessels attempting to cross the Channel have been intercepted by French authorities, while more than 110 migrants have been picked up by their British counterparts.

Piecing together accounts from people in Calais and Dunkirk camps, The Sunday Telegraph understands that at least ten boats, carrying a total of 60 people have successfully reached Britain undetected.

They are the lucky ones.

Gerard Barron, head of the Boulogne sur Mer lifeboat station, and his crews have helped save 11 men in four separate incidents in the last two months.

Last weekend, he was out for eight hours, responding to two emergency calls in one night.

“We picked up two guys who claimed to be Iranians. If we hadn’t have got there, they would have been dead within minutes. Their core temperatures had dropped to 32 degrees Celsius, which you simply cannot survive at.

“I am convinced that some have died already.”

Mr Barron, 70, was born in England but has lived in France since 1972 after studying law at Cambridge. In 34 years in the job, he has never seen such recklessness.