4 migrants in windsurf board bid to reach UK
FOUR migrants were rescued yesterday trying to paddle across the Channel on two windsurf boards tied together – and using spades as oars.
They were picked up by a French patrol boat three miles off Calais after the alarm was raised by a ferry crew.
The four men did not appear to be wearing lifejackets despite the low sea temperature and dangerous waters.
They were taken back to Dunkirk suffering from mild hypothermia and handed over to French border police.
Dozens more migrants were thought to have reached British shores yesterday in three small boats.
Some were pictured being brought into the Port of Dover in Kent by a Border Force vessel yesterday morning.
It takes the number of migrants reaching British soil this year to above 1,900, compared with the 1,850 for the whole of last year. On Wednesday last week 166 people arrived, a record for a single day.
Home Secretary Priti Patel vowed in the autumn that illegal journeys would be virtually eliminated by now. She launched a crackdown with her French counterpart with patrols doubled along the French coast and drones deployed.
MPs and ex-border chiefs have accused her of failing to ‘get a grip’.
Last month the Daily Mail revealed details of how Miss Patel plans to accelerate the fight against illegal immigration.
She has instructed Border Force chiefs to examine whether they have legal powers to turn migrant boats around in the Channel. If it proves impossible under current law, she is planning new legislation.
A tightening of asylum law is also on the drawing board, which will force claimants to lodge arguments at the start of a case.
MPs this week said migrants have threatened to throw their children overboard to deter officials from turning their boats around.