Migrants cross English Channel in third day of arrivals to UK this year
Pictures show men and women wearing blankets and life jackets being brought ashore from a Border Force boat in Dover on Monday.
Migrants have crossed the English Channel to the UK in the third day of arrivals of the year so far.
Pictures show men and women wearing blankets and life jackets being brought ashore from a Border Force boat in Dover on Monday, amid smooth conditions at sea and fair weather.
It comes just two days after the Government confirmed the first person to have died in a small boat incident this year on the French coast on Saturday.
French media reported the migrant was a Syrian man crushed by others on a leaky dinghy.
The French coastguard had said 35 people were rescued in the Channel overnight on Friday, and one teenager was taken to Boulogne-sur-Mer hospital in a stable condition.
Some 128 people made the journey to the UK so far this year, according to provisional Home Office data.
Figures show one boat carrying 61 people, and another boat of 67 people, arrived on January 4 and January 11 respectively.
A total of 36,816 people crossed the English Channel in 2024, with the first crossings of the year recorded on January 13.
Last year’s arrivals jumped by 25% from the 29,437 who arrived in 2023, according to the Home Office, but dropped by 20% on the record 45,774 arrivals in 2022.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “We all want to end dangerous small boat crossings, which threaten lives and undermine our border security.
“The people-smuggling gangs do not care if the vulnerable people they exploit live or die, as long as they pay.
“We will stop at nothing to dismantle their business models and bring them to justice.”
