Record 430 migrants cross Channel in single day

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At least 430 migrants made the journey across the English Channel to the UK yesterday in a new record for a single day as the overseas crossing becomes the preferred route for people-smugglers. 

A group of more than 40 people, including women and young children, were seen walking ashore after one beach landing on the Kent coast yesterday, while another 50 migrants arrived elsewhere. The BBC reported that the group including four Sudanese men who paddled across the Channel.

Monday’s figure passes the previous daily high of 416 set in September 2020. High numbers of crossings have continued this summer despite Home Secretary Priti Patel’s vow to make the Channel crossings ‘unviable’. 

Also on Monday, plans for sweeping reforms of the asylum system, dubbed the anti-refugee Bill by critics and campaigners, were debated again in Parliament. 

In Parliament on Monday, Theresa May sounded warnings over the prospect of the UK sending asylum seekers to Australia-style offshore processing centres. The former prime minister said she considered the idea when home secretary but rejected the option due to ‘practical concerns’.

Her remarks came as MPs considered the Nationality and Borders Bill, which includes clauses to allow the UK to be able to send asylum seekers to a ‘safe third country’ and to submit claims at a ‘designated place’ determined by the Secretary of State.

Bella Sankey, director of charity Detention Action, said: ‘The Home Office’s anti-refugee Bill is political theatre that doesn’t even pretend to deal with the issue or make our system, safe, fair or efficient.

‘We need a mechanism allowing refugees arriving at the UK border in France to be given safe passage, and until we have it, all else is noise and distraction.’ 

In Dungeness in Kent, around 50 people were seen landing on a beach after crossing aboard in a single dinghy. Some raised their hands in celebration as they stood on the beach, while others sat down on the shingle shoreline amid 75F sunshine.

The large dinghy is believed to have left northern France or Belgium earlier on Monday before crossing the dangerous 21-mile Dover Strait. 

The vessel had been watched by the RNLI as it got closer and closer to the coast before eventually landing on the beach at around 1pm. Among the arrivals were women and children, some too young to walk, and some people had to be supported as they walked on to the beach. 

A witness told the Sun that within five minutes a police car had arrived but all of the migrants had already disappeared. She added that two men, who appeared to be British, arrived with snacks and flasks of coffee before clearing discarded lifejackets.  

A large inflatable was pictured on the beach at Dungeness in Kent where 88 people are said to have landed, according to independent monitors posting on social media.

Two coaches were pictured at the pebble beach as the group were detained by Border Force officers. It came after 241 people arrived in the UK on Sunday on board eight boats, as 2021 continues to see rising numbers of crossings.

Border Force and Kent Police were in attendance at the scene as they awaited the arrivals on Monday afternoon. The black dinghy came ashore on Dungeness Beach, around 30 miles along the coast from the port of Dover.

The vessel had been watched by the RNLI as it got closer and closer to the coast before eventually landing on the beach at around 1pm.

Some people raised their hands in the air in apparent celebration at having completed the dangerous journey, while others had to be supported as they walked on to the beach.

Among the arrivals were women and children, some too young to walk.

 

More people are believed to have attempted the cross to the UK on Monday, with Border Force and French warships active in the English Channel.

More than 1,850 people have succeeded in reaching Britain on board small boats in July so far, according to data analysis by the PA news agency, more than the total for the whole of 2019. 

And yesterday at least five boats were brought into Dover Marina, Kent, according to eyewitnesses, with the first vessel intercepted around 12pm.

Three young girls were on board the first boat brought into Dover Marina, Kent around 12pm. Two of them were sitting on the knees of men believed to be their fathers.

They were helped out of the Border Force vessel by Immigration Enforcement officers and escorted up the gangway for processing.

The youngest girl, aged around three, was carried in the arms of an officer.

Two Border Force officers used jet skis to bring the red rigid hulled inflatable boat with outboard engine which they used to cross the Channel into harbour.

They were followed by about 50 men who were brought to shore in separate Border Force vessels.

The huge new cutter Hurricane was used to bring dozens more in shortly after 2pm in what proved to be a busy afternoon of crossings.

They were among the first arrivals since 10 migrants made the journey in one boat last Tuesday.

French authorities intercepted an additional seven boats carrying 129 migrants – while also preventing a further 15 people from entering the water. 

It comes as the Borders Bill is set to be debated in Parliament.

The legislation looks to deter illegal entry and crackdown on people smuggling gangs by making it a criminal offence for migrants to attempt to enter the UK without valid entry clearance.

Home Secretary Priti Patel’s crackdown comes after June saw more migrants cross the Channel by small boat than in any month ever before.