“I would maintain the numbers are so significant, have they got enough resources? We are constantly pressing France on this. And we're asking them to be honest with us about where the gaps are because they can't be everywhere and obviously the numbers are high.”

She disclosed France had now agreed to change its law to allow the deployment of drones and surveillance cameras against migrants as part of the £54 million handed to it. France has been prevented from using the technology after a watchdog ruled it breached.

Ms Patel also insisted that plans to create offshore processing centres where migrants reaching the UK would be flown remained “on the table” with other countries, despite their rejection by Albanian ministers.

The plan for offshore processing hubs is modelled on Australia’s use of the Pacific island of Nauru for migrants, and will be designed to deter crossings by flying migrants offshore within seven days of their arrival. 

The plan will be enacted as part of the Government Nationality and Borders Bill which aims to overhaul what Ms Patel describes as the UK’s “broken” asylum system.

She admitted the controversial “push back” policy for Border Force officers on jet skis to turn back small boats would not “stop” the migration. She warned there was “no silver bullet”, adding: “no single country can fix this on their” own.

“We have to work together - the UK, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, and most countries in the EU, people coming from other routes,” she said. 

Recriminations were also hurled within the EU on Thursday over Germany’s decision to limit the bloc’s retaliatory sanctions against Belarus over the authoritarian regime’s “hybrid war” tactics of encouraging migrants to mass on the Polish border.

While some European capitals, including eastern states, expressed frustration over the robustness of the EU’s policy, Mr Wallace met with his Polish counterpart Mariusz Błaszczak and agreed to step up Britain’s efforts bolstering Warsaw.

Mr Wallace told The Telegraph he had offered to help Poland by sending more troops because in “‘unconventional’ warfare, you have to stand together on these things. You can’t just let your adversary pick you off one by one”.

He added: “Can you imagine going from Iraq, to here, onto a border, not much clothes, not much food, not much money, and then being a pawn in the Belarussian leader’s game? I think that’s heartless and I think it is cruel.”

He said he believed Russia would “see what this is about and recognise that, you know, Europe and Nato and the West is alert to what’s going on”.

Amid the deteriorating humanitarian and security situation around the Poland-Belarus border, a one-year-old Syrian child on Thursday reportedly became the latest migrant to die. 

Britain became the first nation to offer Poland personnel support, when it flew in soldiers from the Royal Engineers to help reinforce the barbed wire fences protecting the EU’s external borders last week.

Mr Wallace stressed that when the fresh round of soldiers deploy, which could be in a matter of weeks, they will not be undertaking combat roles, but will help with roads and observation posts.

Poland has so far rejected the assistance from Frontex, the EU’s border agency, and Europol, its law enforcement wing, amid a refusal by the bloc to fund the construction of border fences.

On Thursday an agreement was also reached between Mr Wallace and Mr Błaszczak to cooperate on Poland’s future air defence system.

The pact will deliver a “step change in our defence co-operation with Poland and paves the way for our militaries to operate even more closely”, said Mr Wallace.