The warning comes as a group of migrants were rescued off the Kent coast after their inflatable boat started sinking.
They had reportedly alerted their families, who raised the alarm with the French authorities.
The 20 people in the boat, including 18 Albanians and two Britons, were taken to Dover and are now being questioned by UK Border Force officers.
A British coastguard helicopter took part in the rescue operation, along with lifeboats from Dungeness and Littlestone.
Coastguard rescue teams from Dungeness and Folkestone were also involved.
A call for help was made off the coast of Dymchurch in Kent at 11.40pm on Saturday.
The inflatable boat was found at 2am and was later examined on Dymchurch beach.
President of the French coastguard, Bernard Barron, told Sky News the suspected smuggler craft was unsuitable for crossing the Channel.
He said: "It's starting to become a very similar situation to that seen in the Mediterranean and my biggest fear is that the same kind of tragedies we see in Greece or Italy will start to repeat in the Channel."
Mr Barron said "smugglers have now found a new strategy" after it had become "virtually impossible" for migrants to cross into the UK via the Channel Tunnel or on ferries.
"They operate across the length of both the French and Belgian coastlines, between Ostend and into Normandy, finding new positions from where they can send their clients - the migrants - towards England.
"These smugglers - despite being given large sums of money - provide methods of transport for the migrants that are not suitable for crossing a sea like the English Channel.
"It's a sea filled with danger, with strong currents, storms and heavy traffic of larger vessels."
The incident comes after 17 suspected Albanians, and a British man wanted on suspicion of murder in Spain, were detained after a catamaran arrived at Chichester Marina in West Sussex on Tuesday.
The 55-year-old, who was the subject of a European Arrest Warrant, was also detained on suspicion of facilitating illegal immigration while the 17 Albanian men were held on suspicion of entering the UK illegally.
They have been detained while the Home Office considers their cases.
Also, last month, two Iranian men were found floating in an ill-equipped dinghy in the English Channel.
Thousands of migrants had died trying to cross from north Africa to Europe and also from Turkey to Greece, with the UN saying that more than 700 may have drowned in just the last few days.
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