Hundreds of migrants were rescued in small boats in the English Channel today, bringing the total number of persons who have made the perilous journey to the UK this year to nearly 10,000.
Although official figures have yet to be established, it is believed that up to 100 people were carried into Dover’s harbour during the Platinum Jubilee bank holiday celebrations.
According to official Ministry of Defense numbers released today, 198 migrants were captured in four small boats on Wednesday.
With 32 individuals rescued on Monday and 249 on Tuesday, the total number of people rescued this week has reached 479. In May, 2,918 people were rescued.
It takes the number so far this year to 9,918 people in 305 boats this year, according to officials.
In 2021 a staggering 28,526 made the crossing – compared to 8,410 who arrived in 2020.
On Tuesday one group of migrants resorted to using tyre inner tubes as life jackets.
Around 20 of the rubber rings were seen discarded in one dinghy towed into the Port of Dover.
Among the group brought in on Tuesday included a number of small children.
A soldier in Army fatigues was seen carefully carrying one child up the gangway to the immigration processing centre on the quayside.
A dad wearing a face mask was also seen carrying his young son off a Border Force vessel after making the treacherous 21 mile crossing.
The French regional operational surveillance and rescue centre (CROSS) in Gris-Nez also identified several boats in difficulty in the Calais Strait on Tuesday.
The all-weather boat, Jean Bart, recovered 41 migrants from the Channel and dropped them at the port of Dunkirk, while the Maritime Affairs patrol boat, Jeanne Barret, picked up 45 shipwrecked people and escorted them to the port of Boulogne-sur-Mer.
They were then taken care of by the French border police and the departmental fire and rescue services.
Minister for Justice and Tackling Illegal Migration, Tom Pursglove MP, has 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, risk lives and our ability to help refugees come to the UK via safe and legal routes. 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 our country.’