Young children brought ashore as migrants cross English Channel

Pictures show the small youngsters being carried as they reached Dover, while men and women were also in warm clothes amid colder weather conditions.

A group of people thought to be migrants, including young children, are brought into Dover, Kent, from a Border Force vessel following a small boat incident in the Channel (Gareth Fuller/PA)

Young children wearing woolly hats and coats were among migrants arriving in the UK after crossing the English Channel.

Pictures show the small youngsters being carried as they reached Dover, Kent, with men and women also wrapped up in warm clothes to brave the colder weather conditions as they were brought ashore by a Border Force boat.

Before Wednesday, the latest arrivals of 122 people in two boats were recorded on Sunday, bringing the provisional total for the year to 33,684.

The Home Office figures also marked more than 20,000 people arriving since Sir Keir Starmer became Prime Minister in July, with the milestone coming on his 150th day in office.

Migrant Channel crossing incidents — A group of people thought to be migrants are brought into Dover from a Border Force vessel following a small boat incident in the Channel (Gareth Fuller/PA)

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper vowed to “restore order” to the migration system following the data, and blamed the Conservatives for a “collapse in controls”.

She told the House of Commons on Monday: “We have the chance now to turn that around, to fix the chaos, to bring net migration down, to tackle the criminal gangs and prevent dangerous boat crossings, to restore order, control and fair rules properly enforced, not through gimmicks but through hard graft and serious international partnerships.”

Wednesday’s crossings also come as more than 500 officers were involved in a series of police raids targeting people smugglers who bring migrants to the UK in small boats in Germany.

UK authorities are understood to be supporting the action, but all the operational activity is taking place in Germany, and the investigation is being led by France.

The action is targeting gangs who take migrants from the Middle East and North Africa to France, before embarking on potentially deadly Channel crossings to the UK in flimsy inflatable boats.

No crossings have been recorded in the last two days, while Sunday’s arrivals were the first since November 16 after a 14-day hiatus in activity amid bad weather.

So far the total arrivals for the year are up 16% on this time last year (29,090) but down 24% on 2022 (44,174), which was a record high year for crossings.