A record for migrants as 828 cross to UK in a day
AT LEAST 828 people made the dangerous journey across the English Channel on small boats in a single day at the weekend – a new record for the current migrant crisis.
Despite repeated pledges by the Home Office to make the route ‘unviable’, 30 boats succeeded in reaching the UK on Saturday, officials confirmed.
The tally eclipses the previous daily record of 592 people intercepted or rescued by the Border Force, set less than two weeks ago.
More than 12,400 have now made the perilous crossing in 2021, data compiled by the PA news agency shows.
Last year, 8,417 people crossed to the UK via the Channel.
But the journey has claimed many lives, prompting repeated promises of action from governments on both sides of the Channel.
Earlier this month, a 27-year-old Eritrean man died after he and four other people jumped overboard as their boat started to sink.
Dan O’Mahoney, Clandestine Channel Threat commander for the Home Office, said: ‘These dangerous crossings from safe EU countries are completely unnecessary and we are determined to take down the evil criminal gangs behind them.
‘We’re working across government as well as with French and international partners to tackle this issue.
‘We have doubled the number of police officers on French beaches, prevented more than 10,000 attempts, secured nearly 300 arrests and 65 prosecutions.’
Sunbathers watched on Saturday as a group of 20 migrants, with three children and a baby, emerged from a dinghy on to a beach at Broadstairs, Kent.
‘Most of them ran off in every direction,’ said Sally Jones Rowell, who was in her beach hut with daughter Lydia, 13. ‘We gave the children some packets of crisps.’