The Royal Navy should be brought in to bolster our sea defences, it's claimed - after it was revealed just three Border Force boats guard all our coastlines.

The agency has a "worryingly low" number of boats to patrol our coasts, according to MPs - which leaves counties such as Kent open to threats from people smugglers.

The Home Affairs Select Committee said only three boats are available to patrol 7,000 miles of shoreline.

But it called for Royal Navy vessels to be made available to plug the gaps.

The report was released just days after two people smugglers were jailed after smuggling migrants into the country.

Their boat capsized when it ran out of fuel with 18 Albanians on board off the Kent coast.

Former judo champion Robert Stilwell, of Stanley Close, Greenhithe, was sentenced to four years and four months and Mark Stribling, of Hilltop Farm, Farningham, near Swanley, to four years and eight months.

Now the Home Office has announced it has ordered eight more boats.

Committee chairman Keith Vaz MP said: "Naval deployments in the Mediterranean have saved lives, but they have failed in their twin tasks of deterring migrant flows and disrupting and destroying criminal smuggling networks.

"The EU's response in combating people traffickers who are exploiting, exacerbating and profiting from this crisis has been poor. These criminal gangs are the only winners.

"Criminal gangs continue to exploit weaknesses in security at small ports in Britain to illegally transport migrants from the continent.

"Despite maritime security being critical to an island nation, Border Force is operating worryingly low numbers of vessels to protect our borders. Royal Navy vessels must be used in our sea war against the traffickers.

"The appalling attacks in Paris demonstrated that terrorists are exploiting this crisis by using this human tragedy as a cloak to re-enter Europe.

"The EU external border must improve security, including deploying specialist equipment to fingerprint and check everyone against security databases. This is not happening.

"Terrorists do not see borders as barriers to their barbarism."