Another group of migrants arrived in Dover today after more than 300 people were picked up in the English Channel over the weekend – with the annual total now exceeding 8,500.
The migrants, who appear to number around a dozen, were pictured this morning being driven ashore at Dover by Border Force officers.
They were reportedly picked up from a small boat trying to cross the Channel.
Today’s migrants arrive after 266 migrants arrived in six boats on Saturday and 54 migrants in one boat on Sunday.
These latest arrivals follow a wave of recent crossings, with smuggling gangs taking advantage of the relatively calm weather to make more landings.
Border Force officials help rescued migrants in Dover today
At least a dozen individuals wearing bright red life jackets disembarked
They were helped onto the platforms for treatment, some wearing blankets against the cold.
According to Interior Ministry figures, 1,288 people have already arrived this month.
The total number of arrivals for this year now stands at 8,587, a significant increase compared to the same period last year.
That’s about 34 percent higher than the total at the equivalent period last year, which was 6,192, and 19 percent higher than the total at this point in 2022, which was 6,945.
On Wednesday, 711 people were detected crossing the Channel, the highest number in a single day so far this year.
The highest number of arrivals ever recorded in a single day is 1,295, recorded on August 22, 2022.
Last year, 29,437 migrants arrived in the UK, a drop of 36% from a record 45,774 arrivals in 2022.
The series of crossings comes as the Rwandan government admitted it could not guarantee the number of migrants it would take in from the UK under Rishi Sunak’s flagship deportation programme.
A group of migrants are brought to Dover, Kent, by the RNLI last week after being picked up
A French police officer slashes an inflatable boat full of migrants who were trying to leave a beach
But Yolande Makolo, a spokesperson for the East African state, denied that Rwanda would be able to accommodate a tiny 200, saying that was the capacity of a single household in the country which should welcome them.
Asked by the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg whether Rwanda would be able to accommodate tens of thousands of migrants, the official replied: “We will be able to accommodate the migrants that the UK sends for throughout the duration of this partnership.
“What I can’t tell you is how many thousands we get in the first or second year. “It will depend on many, many factors that are currently being studied,” she said.
These perilous crossings cost even more lives last week, as five people drowned when nearly 100 migrants piled into a small boat that sank off the coast of France, including seven people, Sara Alhashimi.
His distraught father, Ahmed, 41, said he just wanted “my children to go to school” and saw the UK as his last chance after 14 years of failed attempts to stay on the continent even if his daughter was born in Belgium.
Sara spent most of her short life living with relatives in liberal Sweden, which boasts of its open-door policy but gave her only two days’ notice of her deportation.
Sara (pictured) died while trying to cross the English Channel to Britain last week
Sara (right) pictured with her father Ahmed
“I will never forgive myself, but the sea was the only choice I had,” Mr Alhashimi told the BBC from the northern coast of France earlier this week.
Meanwhile, a third man has been charged with an immigration offense in connection with the deaths.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) said Mohammed Jibril, 23, from Sudan, will appear at Reading Magistrates’ Court on Thursday charged with entering the UK illegally.
He was arrested in Hayes, west London, and was questioned by police on Wednesday.
It comes after two other men from South Sudan and Sudan were charged over the incident, but disputes over their age and youth delayed court proceedings.
The two men claimed to be 15 and 16, but initial assessments of their ages by immigration officials and a social worker placed them in their early 20s.
Since the tragedy, French authorities have been urged to significantly step up efforts to prevent migrants from leaving the coast.
They were photographed deploying tear gas and slashing canoes with knives to try to stop migrants from crossing.
A group of migrants on a rubber dinghy in the English Channel (archive image)
Distraught migrants were seen collapsing on the beach as they were stopped from making the dangerous journey, for which some had paid up to £1,000 each.
Nearly 121,000 migrants have been intercepted crossing the Channel in small boats since 2018, with 6,667 migrants crossing this year alone, according to official data.
In response to this month’s discouraging figures, a Home Office spokesperson said: “The unacceptable number of people continuing to cross the Channel demonstrates exactly why we need to get flights to Rwanda off the ground as soon as possible. as early as possible.
“We continue to work closely with French police who are facing increasing violence and disruption on their beaches as they work tirelessly to prevent these dangerous, illegal and unnecessary trips. Last year they stopped 26,000 people from reaching our shores.
“We remain committed to building on the successes which saw arrivals fall by more than a third last year, including tougher legislation and agreements with international partners, to save lives and stop the boats .”
Nearly 121,000 migrants have been intercepted crossing the Channel in small boats since 2018, with 6,667 migrants having crossed so far this year, according to official data.
The government’s Rwanda Bill finally became law last week after months of delay, meaning Home Office officials can now begin detaining the first batch of migrants destined for deportation to the Rwanda before the first flights this summer.
On Saturday, Ursula von der Leyen (photo), the president of the European Commission, supported a policy of deporting people to third countries for asylum processing.
The government’s Rwanda Bill finally became law last week after months of delay, meaning Home Office officials can now begin detaining the first batch of migrants destined for deportation to the Rwanda before the first flights this summer.
Additionally, Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, on Saturday supported a policy of deporting people to third countries for asylum processing.
In a shock statement on the eve of June’s European elections, Von der Leyen’s European People’s Party (EPP) called for “a fundamental change in European asylum law”.
The EPP group, the largest in the European Parliament, has pledged: “We want to implement the concept of safe third countries. Anyone seeking asylum in the EU could also be transferred to a safe third country and follow the asylum procedure there.
Mr Sunak replied: “I said when I became Prime Minister that others would recognize that a meaningful deterrent was the only way to stop the boats and now even the main EU parties are following our lead. “
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