Footage shows parents letting their toddlers play on live railway lines, young people doing one-armed press-ups, and dog walkers sitting their pets on the tracks for photos.
Network Rail has released a compilation of CCTV footage showing people “risking their lives” at footpath level crossings in Worcestershire.
Covert cameras captured six instances of “incredibly dangerous behaviour” at crossings.
The company said they were just a handful of examples out of nearly 50 cases of misuse either reported by train drivers or caught on hidden cameras.
In one clip, loud music plays while a teenager does one-armed press-ups in the middle of a crossing – and in another a horn sounds as two dog walkers rush across eight seconds before a high-speed train passes.
One video shows a dog walker encouraging two dogs to sit on the tracks while another takes photos of them.
Footage also shows a primary school aged boy on a scooter rushing over the crossing in front of an oncoming train that arrives seven seconds later.
A man with two little girls playing on the rails can be seen pointing out the “pretty hills” in the distance to them – they were caught on camera on the tracks for over 90 seconds.
In another incident, two boys can be seen placing ballast stones on the track so they are run over by trains.
Alexandra France, Network Rail level crossing safety manager, said: “In so many of the incidents filmed, the difference of just a few seconds could have led to tragedy for those involved.
“I can’t downplay the danger they were in – with serious injury or worse a huge possibility.
“No matter how well you think you know a crossing, all users must obey the rules around using level crossings every time they use it. It just really isn’t worth the risk.”
Network Rail level crossing safety teams are now visiting the problem crossings to directly warn people of the dangers on the railway.
They will be handing out leaflets and explaining to passers-by people using footpath level crossings should: concentrate; stop, look and listen; check both ways before crossing; understand the warnings; and cross quickly, keeping children close and dogs on a lead.
Facebook, TikTok and Twitter will team up with UK law enforcement to crack down on posts by people smugglers encouraging migrants to cross the English Channel, the government says.
Rishi Sunak, who has made cutting the number of small boats arriving on UK shores one of his “five pledges”, said the new partnerships with various social media companies will tackle attempts to “lure” people into paying to make the perilous journey.
Group discounts, free spaces for children and offers of false documents are among the posts the prime minister wants removed to help achieve his promise to “stop the boats”.
Nearly 15,000 people have made the dangerous trip across the Dover Strait in small boats so far this year, according to official data compiled and analysed by Sky News.
This is around 15% less than the same time last year, the data suggests.
The voluntary partnership between social media firms and the National Crime Agency will seek to redirect people away from such content in the same way as is used to tackle content promoting extremism or eating disorders.
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2:45
Plans to house asylum seekers in tents
Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, as well as TikTok and X, formally known as Twitter, have all signed up to the plans, Downing Street said.
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It comes as controversy over plans to house asylum seekers on the Bibby Stockholm barge continues.
Mr Sunak said: “To stop the boats, we have to tackle the business model of vile people smugglers at source.
“That means clamping down on their attempts to lure people into making these illegal crossings and profit from putting lives at risk.
“This new commitment from tech firms will see us redouble our efforts to fight back against these criminals, working together to shut down their vile trade.”
Read more: Lords back down over government plans to stop small boats Nearly 300 children have died or disappeared in Mediterranean crossings
Labour said the action was “too little, too late” and the Liberal Democrats said it amounted to “tinkering around the edges”.
Kicking off a “small boats week” of linked announcements, Number 10 said the “legacy” backlog of asylum applications made before the end of June 2022 has been reduced by a third since December.
But Labour claimed it will take until 2036 to clear the existing backlog for removals of failed asylum seekers, with nearly 40,000 people awaiting removal in the latest figures.
Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said it was “just deluded” for the Conservatives to “boast about progress on tackling the Tories’ asylum chaos”.
The UK government is “avoiding the asylum responsibilities it expects others to take” with new plans to clamp down on small boat crossings, a human rights group has said.
Refugee charities have also described the plans as “costly and unworkable” and said they “promise nothing but more demonisation and punishment” of asylum seekers.
It comes as Home Secretary Suella Braverman is set to publish long-promised legislation as early as Tuesday.
A ban on people who come to the UK illegally from claiming asylum is believed to be among the proposals being put forward in a new Illegal Migration Bill.
Government minister Chris Heaton-Harris said on Sunday that the legislation will ensure people who come to the UK illegally “are returned very quickly” or to another country such as Rwanda.
Rishi Sunak has made stopping Channel migrant crossings one of his five priorities in office, promising to introduce new laws to “make sure that if you come to this country illegally, you are detained and swiftly removed”.
Several Tory MPs welcomed the news that a new bill was imminent, with Tory MP Danny Kruger calling it a “serious plan” on BBC Radio 4’s Westminster Hour.
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But the plans have been criticised, including by Labour, who have accused the government of “recycling the same rhetoric and failure”.
Image: Home Secretary Suella Braverman
Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said: “The Conservatives are responsible for an abysmal failure to tackle the huge increase in dangerous small boat crossings and the criminal gangs who are putting lives at risk and undermining border security.
“Ministers have made countless claims and promises yet the facts show their last law badly failed and made things worse.”
She said Labour was calling for a major new cross-border police unit to go after the criminal gangs, fast track asylum decisions and returns, and urged the government to reach “proper return agreements” with France and other countries, including Belgium.
Read more: Channel people smuggler reveals how illicit trade works People smugglers ‘investing profits in UK businesses’
The Liberal Democrats said ministers had drawn up “another half-baked plan”, while on Sunday, trade unions accused the government of being “complicit” in a rise in far-right organised violence and intimidation against refugees.
Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, said plans to deny those crossing in small boats the ability to claim asylum would “shatter the UK’s long-standing commitment under the UN Convention to give people a fair hearing regardless of the path they have taken to reach our shores”.
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2:31
Why do migrants cross the Channel?
He also said the plans would “add more cost and chaos to the system”.
Steve Valdez-Symonds, Amnesty International UK’s refugee and migrant rights director, accused the government of presenting “the very same disastrous plan to simply avoid the asylum responsibilities it expects others to take”.
He also said the government’s proposals “promise nothing but more demonisation and punishment of people fleeing conflict and persecution who dare to seek asylum in the UK by means to which government has chosen to restrict them.”
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Sunday vowed to put an end to “immoral” illegal migration.
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Speaking to the Sunday Express, he said: “Illegal migration is not fair on British taxpayers, it is not fair on those who come here legally and it is not right that criminal gangs should be allowed to continue their immoral trade.
“I’m determined to deliver on my promise to stop the boats.
“So make no mistake, if you come here illegally, you will not be able to stay.”
A report in The Sunday Times said the Home Office had drawn up two plans to stop people arriving via small boats from claiming asylum – either withdrawing the right to appeal against automatic exclusion from the asylum system, or only allowing them to appeal after they have been deported.
A third proposal would prevent people from using the Human Rights Act to prevent their deportations, such as by claiming their right to family life.
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Heaton-Harris on PM’s proposed new laws on migrant crossings
The legislation could also see a duty placed on the home secretary to remove “as soon as reasonably practicable” anyone who arrives on a small boat, either to Rwanda or a “safe third country”.
Cabinet minister Chris Heaton-Harris told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme that the new laws would be “very black and white” and “safe and legal routes are certainly the way forward”.
However, questions have been raised about how any such legislation, based on the details known so far, could be compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.
The government’s previous Rwanda scheme became mired in legal challenges, with so far no flights carrying migrants to the Rwandan capital Kigali departing.
The latest Home Office figures show 2,950 migrants have crossed the Channel already this year, while a record 45,756 migrants were recorded to have arrived in the UK last year.
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2:31
‘People smuggling is just another job’
A Home Office spokesperson said: “The Home Secretary has been clear that if you arrive in the UK illegally, you should not be allowed to stay.
“We will shortly introduce legislation which will ensure that people arriving in the UK illegally are detained and promptly returned to their home country or a safe third country.
“Our work with France is also vital to tackling the unacceptable rise in dangerous Channel crossings. We share a determination to tackle this issue together, head-on, to stop the boats.”
“TikTok traffickers” who use social media to advertise small boat crossings to migrants must face criminal penalties, ministers have been told.
Conservative MP Natalie Elphicke believes the advertising of Channel crossings on networks such as TikTok and Facebook should be recognised as a crime.
Speaking during a Commons debate on the Online Safety Bill, the Dover MP – whose constituency is at the forefront of the UK’s migration crisis – suggested criminalising such online promotions would save lives and help stem the business model of trafficking groups.
Ms Elphicke highlighted the “massive increase in the number of Albanians crossing the Channel in small boats” – and said it had become “easy to find criminal gangs posting in Albanian on TikTok with videos showing cheery migrants with thumbs up on dinghies scooting across the Channel and motoring into Britain with ease”.
Image: Natalie Elphicke
Urging the Commons to back her amendment to the bill, she said: “New clause 55 will tackle the TikTok traffickers and help prevent people from risking their lives taking these journeys across the English Channel.”
A group of more than 50 MPs recently wrote to PM Rishi Sunak, urging him to introduce emergency legislation designed to cut small boat crossings.
Ms Elphicke’s amendment would create a new criminal offence of “intentionally sharing a photograph or film that facilitates or promotes modern slavery or illegal immigration”.
It has the support of a group of Tory backbenchers, including former ministers Sir John Hayes and Tim Loughton.
Ms Elphicke told MPs: “Advertising in this context is not done through an advert in the local paper, it is by the posting of a video online and photos online.”
Read more: Home secretary pledges to do ‘whatever it takes’ to tackle ‘small boats problem’ in the Channel Tories call for changes to modern slavery rules to send ‘bogus asylum seekers’ home ‘It’s no life here’: Albanians undeterred from seeking a life in the UK
She told ministers TikTok, WhatsApp and Facebook had all been identified as platforms actively used by the people smugglers and said “action is needed … to save lives in the Channel”.
Ms Elphicke said her amendment would be a stronger deterrent to traffickers.
She added: “It will make it harder for the people smugglers to sell their wares, it will help to protect people who would be exploited and put at risk by these criminal gangs.
“Risks to life and injury, the risk of modern slavery, risks of being swept into further crime both abroad and here in the UK are very real.
“It is another tool in the toolbox to tackle illegal immigration and prevent modern slavery.”
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2:29
Home Secretary Suella Braverman admits migration failure
Culture minister Paul Scully said he would work closely with Ms Elphicke on the legislation’s passage ahead of its consideration in the House of Lords.
“The legislation will give our law enforcement agencies and social media companies the powers and guidance they need to stop the promotion of organised criminal activity on social media.”
The new home secretary has vowed to stop small boats crossing the Channel and to find a way to “make the Rwanda scheme work”.
Suella Braverman, in her first speech in the job, received a standing ovation at the Conservative Party conference after promising to stop the illegal migrant crossings.
“We have got to stop the boats crossing the Channel. This has gone on for too long. But I have to be straight with you, there are no quick fixes,” she said.
“The problem is chronic. Organised criminal gangs are selling a lie to thousands of people. Many are drowning in the Channel.
“Many are leaving a safe country like France and abusing our asylum system.”
Ms Braverman told the Birmingham conference said she will work closely with France “to get more out of our partnership” both on the French coastline and “further upstream” against the criminal gangs smuggling people over.
This announcement was met with a standing ovation from the audience and prompted her to say she had not finished yet.
The home secretary added that in order to prevent illegal migration “we need to find a way to make the Rwanda scheme work”.
She hit out at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) overriding the UK Supreme Court so the government’s first deportation flight to Rwanda was unable to take off.
Her predecessor, Priti Patel, launched the scheme to send migrants, who came into the UK via small boats in the Channel, to Rwanda in a partnership with the African country.
But no flights have yet left the UK due to the ECHR’s decisions, with Ms Braverman saying: “We need to take back control.”
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2:34
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Modern slavery
She also said the largest group of migrants in small boats are currently coming from Albania, which she said is “a safe country”.
Ms Braverman said many of them claim to have been trafficked as modern slaves “despite them having paid thousands of pounds to come here, or having willingly taken a dangerous journey across the Channel”.
She said many are not modern slaves and their claims of being trafficked “are lies”.
Dover’s Tory MP Natalie Elphicke told Sky News she welcomed the measures and added that the British people will “absolutely help people in need of asylum” but the situation is abused daily in the town.
Ms Braverman also said there are “egregious examples of convicted paedophiles and rapists” making last-minute claims of modern slavery to block their deportation.
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Image: The Rwanda flights have yet to take off due to legal challenges
Not racist to want to control borders
In her wide-ranging speech, the home secretary said legal migration needs to be controlled so those who emigrate to the UK assimilate.
“It’s not racist for anyone, ethnic minority or otherwise, to want to control our borders,” said Ms Braverman, whose parents came from Kenya and Mauritius in the 1960s.
“It’s not bigoted to say that we have too many asylum seekers who are abusing the system.
“It’s not xenophobic to say that mass and rapid migration places pressure on housing, public services and community relations.
“I reject the Left’s argument that it is hypocritical for someone from an ethnic minority to tell these truths.”
Image: Ms Braverman took aim at Extinction Rebellion protesters
Police should not take the knee
She also promised to back the police and to ensure they investigate every neighbourhood crime.
Members applauded when she said officers must have powers to “stop protesters who use guerrilla tactics” and warned activists from environmental groups Just Stop Oil, Insulate Britain and Extinction Rebellion that they will be jailed for breaking the law during protests.
She also said it was wrong for police to take the knee, join in political demonstrations and for male officers to strip search female suspects.
“More PCs, less PC,” she said to a roar of applause.
The home secretary also pledged to ensure the Prevent terrorism referral scheme is “fit for purpose”.
The number of migrants crossing the Channel in July was the highest monthly of the year so far, with 3,683 making the journey in 90 boats, according to government figures.
The new total – the highest of any month in 2022 – comes amid reports Home Secretary Priti Patel will sign another multi-million pound deal with France to try to reduce the numbers.
According to the Times, the money will go towards more beach patrols and surveillance equipment, and be in addition to millions already paid to the country.
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It also comes a month after new laws increasing the maximum penalty for those illegally entering the UK to four years in prison, and life in prison for those piloting the boats.
The government announced its plan to send migrants who arrive illegally in the UK to Rwanda just three months ago, saying it would deter people from making the Channel crossings.
But the first flight to the country was cancelled after a last minute order from the European Court of Human Rights, and 11,131 migrants have arrived in the UK since.
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Ms Patel has continued to stand by the plan, saying the government would “not be deterred from doing the right thing [and] we will not be put off by the inevitable last-minute legal challenges”.
And both candidates for the Tory leadership, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, have committed to the scheme.
Image: Reports claim Priti Patel is about to sign a new deal with France to try to curb Channel crossings
But opposition parties and charities – reportedly even Prince Charles – have claimed the policy is inhumane.
Last month, court documents revealed Ms Patel was warned against pursuing the scheme, with the UK’s High Commissioner to Rwanda saying the country “has been accused of recruiting refugees to conduct armed operations in neighbouring countries”.
