More than 100 migrants including baby arrive in Dover for second day in a row

View
comments

More than 100 migrants including a baby have arrived in Dover for the second day in a row after taking advantage of better conditions to risk the dangerous Channel crossing on Tuesday.

Dozens of people wrapped in blankets, hats and scarves were rescued by Border Force and the RNLI after making the journey in three boats by 9am.

Around 40 people were the first to be brought into Dover Marina, Kent, on the back of a lifeboat at 2.30am, according to eyewitness estimates. 

Another 25 then arrived on the RNLI’s 13-12 lifeboat Casandra at 7.30am, with Border Force cutter Hunter rescuing a further 40 and bringing them to harbour shortly after 9am.

They follow 25 people draped in blankets who were brought to shore on board large Border Force vessel Seeker shortly before 5pm on Monday. 

So far in March, a total of 755 migrants have arrived in 25 boats, and 2022 has seen 2,239 reach the UK in 76 boats to date.

At least 60 migrants reached the UK by small boats on March 3 with 230 making the perilous crossing on the previous day.

They were the first since 132 people were picked up in the Channel during freezing conditions on February 26 – the second of two incidents reported for the whole month of February. 

Heavy winds and storms throughout last month temporarily prevented crossings due to the dangerous waters of the channel.

But numbers have increased once again as temperatures are forecast to hit up to 60F (16C) in the South East today, while light winds are set to bring calmer sea conditions. 

This morning’s first group, which consisted predominantly of men, huddled together on the hull before being escorted up the gangway..

The second group wore red lifejackets as they disembarked to be processed by Immigration Enforcement.

A young family including a mother carrying her daughter wearing a pink coat and her son aged around 10 were among them.  

Approximately 105 migrants are understood to have made the treacherous trip across the Dover Strait so far today, although official figures have not yet been confirmed by the Home Office. 

Home Office officials have warned this year could see more than 65,000 people arrive in the UK by small boat.

Minister for Justice and Tackling Illegal Migration, Tom Pursglove MP, said: ‘The rise in dangerous Channel crossings is unacceptable.

‘Not only are they an overt abuse of our immigration laws but they also impact on the UK taxpayer and they risk lives. Rightly, the British public has had enough.

‘Through our Nationality and Borders Bill, we’re cracking down on people smugglers and fixing the broken system by making it a criminal offence to knowingly arrive in the UK illegally and introducing a maximum sentence of life imprisonment for those who facilitate illegal entry into the country.’

The latest arrival comes after 21 migrants dived off a yacht into a river after its sailor ran it aground during low tide on February 12.

The group capsized the 20ft vessel when they rushed to one side to see why they had stopped moving, toppling it over in the water. 

They got stuck near the bank in Rye Harbour in East Sussex at around 1pm after sailing the boat across the Channel and up the river.

Footage, shared with MailOnline, showed people desperately swimming towards a nearby dinghy that was deployed from the yacht.

Some of the people were forced to leap into the water as the yacht slowly tipped over and capsized when too many grouped on one side.

At least one man could be seen swimming through the water with an orange life jacket towards the dinghy. 

Footage taken later in the evening showed the boat after it had been re-floated by responders from the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI).

Official figures released for the first time yesterday showed 28,526 people arrived in the UK after crossing the Channel in small boats last year – more than 95 times higher than in 2018.

The Home Office statistics were higher than previously thought and compare with 8,466 people crossing the Channel in 2020, 1,843 in 2019 and just 299 in 2018.

Home Office officials have warned that this year could see more than 65,000 people arrive in the UK by small boat. 

Numbers arriving in the UK reached their highest peak in November 2021, when 6,971 small boats arrived in a single month. 

November 27 also saw the greatest loss of life in the migrant crisis when 27 people tragically drowned in the English Channel after their dinghy collapsed, including seven women and three children.

Despite highlighting the dangers of crossing the 21-mile Dover Strait in unsuitable craft, migrants continued to arrive in high numbers throughout December.

The number of asylum claims made in the UK has also climbed to its highest in nearly two decades, while the backlog of cases waiting to be determined continues to soar.

There were 48,540 asylum applications – relating to 56,495 people – in the UK in 2021, up 63 per cent on the previous year and the highest for a calendar year since 2003.

Home Secretary Priti Patel has pledged to end people smuggling across the English Channel with the Nationality and Borders Bill which has passed through the Commons and is in its third reading at the House of Lords.

The bill will stop and divert dinghies suspected of carrying illegal migrants to the UK  and return them to where their sea journey to the UK began, subject to agreement with other countries.

The Home Office has been reportedly trying to strike deals with countries to allow Britain to process asylum claims abroad in order to deter Channel crossings. 

MailOnline has contacted the Home Office and Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) for comment.