34 migrants are seized in Channel

A GROUP of 34 migrants in one or more boats were intercepted off the Kent coast yesterday.

A lifeboat crew and a Border Force patrol vessel were called out to at least one vessel in the morning when they were spotted off the village of Kingsdown, near Deal.

Coastguard and Border Force officials worked together to bring the group to shore to be quizzed.

On Friday, 10 suspected migrants were picked up in a boat near Dover – and hundreds, many Iranian, have made or attempted trips across the Channel in recent months.

A Home Office spokesman said: “Border Force responded to an incident in the Channel involving a small boat.”

Dover MP Charlie Elphicke said: “This underlines yet again why we urgently need air surveillance day and night along the French coast.”