Migrants reach UK in ‘record numbers’
A RECORD 1,185 people reached the UK on Thursday after risking death on board small boats in the English Channel - a new record for a single day.
Lifeboat crews, Border Force and French authorities spent hours intercepting boats in the Dover Strait throughout the day.
However, despite their efforts, three people are feared lost at sea after two kayaks were found adrift off the coast of Calais.
Thursday’s total, confirmed by the Home Office on Friday, is the highest for daily arrivals during the current crisis, surpassing the previous record of 853 set earlier this month.
More than 23,500 people have now reached the UK after crossing the English Channel on board small boats this year, according to data compiled by the PA news agency.
In the last seven days, more than 2,400 people have crossed to Britain - the most in any such period during the current crisis and more than the entirety of 2019.
The Channel is the busiest shipping lane in the world and has claimed lives in the past, including two people in recent weeks.
Shadow home secretary Nick Thomassymonds tweeted: “Time and time again, we keep hitting new records with crossings - people risking their lives to make this treacherous journey.
“It is time for the Home Secretary to take some responsibility and stop blaming others.”
In what has become a familiar sight at the
docks in Dover, a young girl wrapped in a red jacket was seen being carried ashore on Thursday, one of hundreds of people brought in after being picked up at sea.
Border officials were busy past nightfall in the Kent harbour as they worked to process the hundreds of arrivals.
The cries of children waiting within the compound amid the November chill could be heard, adding to the usual hustle and bustle noise of the busy trade port.
Further along the coast, more people were reportedly seen arriving on Hastings beach in East Sussex after being picked up by the RNLI.
Steve Valdez-symonds, Amnesty International UK’S refugee and migrant rights director, said: “The people making these perilous sea crossings are doing so out of desperation, largely because there are no safe and legal routes open to them and many have family and other connections here.
“Instead of seizing on these highly visible crossings to manufacture a supposed ‘national emergency’ in their attempts to justify draconian new asylum policies, ministers ought to be working constructively with the French authorities to provide safe access to asylum procedures on both sides of the Channel.
“With its current approach, the Government is wilfully endangering people it should be helping.
“These are cruel tactics and they should end.”