A MONTHS-old baby was seen being hauled aboard a packed mega-dinghy bound for UK shores as French cops stood by and did nothing.

Dozens of migrants, including several young children, crowded onto the inflatable boat as tourists and police watched on from a nearby beach.

Multiple young children, including a months-old baby, were seen being dragged onto the taxi boat at pit stops along the French coast.

Officers reportedly threatened to arrest a photographer who captured them standing by and doing nothing.

The small boat had been closely tracked by French authorities for nine-and-a-half hours as it picked up passengers along the coastline.

It appeared to have been launched near the Normandy fishing port of Dieppe – much further south than where the boats usually leave.

People-smuggling gangs are said to be using new launch sites to evade police detection.

The boat was followed up the shore by a French coastguard vessel, but only in case it sunk.

After 40 miles, the dinghy stopped at Berck beach, before travelling another 12 miles to Camiers beach.

There, photographer Ioannis Alexopoulos saw a group of migrants emerge from behind the dunes and make for the boat.

Alexopoulos captured shocking pictures of young children being taken on board, including a baby who was too small to wear a life jacket.

He said: “Three police turned up, gendarmes in military clothes – but all they did was film, and threaten to arrest me if I kept taking pictures.”

The migrants headed to the UK where they were picked up in the channel by a British Border Security Command vessel and taken to Dover.

They are just a small portion of more than 2,000 who have crossed the channel since Andy Burnham became Prime Minister three weeks ago.

It comes as the government admits criminal smuggling gangs could rapidly change tactics and wipe out progress on cutting small boat crossings.

Crossings are down 43 per cent year on year because of a crackdown on dinghies reaching beaches and increased enforcement on smugglers running the routes.

But the new Border Security Commander Duncan Capps, a former Army officer, has admitted in his first annual report that the progress is “not definitive”.

Despite the dip in crossings, the number of migrants in northern France ready and waiting for a chance to come to the UK has not changed.

Maj Gen Capps wrote: “Recent numbers are positive. But this could change rapidly.”

“Particularly given the likelihood that organised criminal gangs will adapt their tactics and seek to drive renewed flows.

“Especially over the summer months when conditions are more favourable.

“We have steadily forced organised crime groups into a less advantageous position.

“But we should be prepared for them to innovate to protect their profits.”

As of early August, 14,561 people have crossed the Channel in small boats this year.

A Home Office source insisted that new policies were “beginning to bear fruit” but “we are not complacent”.