5,000 cross Channel in 2020 so far

Despite drowning of young Sudanese man, the boats from France keep coming

MORE than 5,000 migrants will have crossed the Channel in small boats this year by this weekend.

Undeterred by the tragic death of a young Sudanese man earlier this week, hundreds more are expected to attempt to reach Britain in the coming days.

Yesterday the Home Office announced 164 migrants arrived on the Kent coast in 11 boats on Wednesday, and 41 were picked up by the French. A further eight men from Nigeria, Guinea, Gambia and Sierra Leone were picked up by the Border Force yesterday.

This takes the number who have made the journey this year to 4,994. Given that there have been new arrivals almost every day for the past few weeks, the total is expected to surge past the 5,000 mark today.

More than 1,400 migrants have already crossed the Channel in small boats in August alone – a record for a single month – despite there still being ten days before September.

By contrast, just 1,850 successfully crossed the Channel in the whole of last year.

The death of the Sudanese migrant on Wednesday once again stoked up cross-Channel tensions, with Calais MP Pierre- Henri Dumont claiming Britain’s asylum policy was to blame for the tragedy. Tory MP Tim Loughton, a former children’s minister, hit back, claiming the ‘lack of humanity’ lay with the French for letting migrants attempt to cross the Channel.

Former marine Dan O’Mahoney, who is leading Britain’s response to the illegal crossings, arrived in France yesterday to continue searching for a solution.

Following his meetings, he said: ‘[Wednesday’s] incident, where a Sudanese migrant lost his life attempting to cross the Channel, served as a tragic reminder of the vital importance of the work the UK and France are engaged in to make this route completely unviable.’

Mr O’Mahoney added: ‘People should seek asylum in the first safe country they enter.

‘Those attempting to cross the Channel, one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, in unsuitable boats and without appropriate... skills are putting at risk the lives of all those on board.’

Paris has demanded £30million from the UK Government to bolster its Channel patrols, but Home Secretary Priti Patel said any such funds are conditional on France taking back some of the migrants.

Almost 450 migrants, who claim to be under the age of 18, have arrived without relatives this year. They are all being cared for by Kent County Council – which is looking after a total of 605 under-18s.

This week the council said its capacity has reached its limits and it ‘simply cannot safely accommodate any more new arrivals’.

In an attempt to resolve the problem, ministers have urged other councils to take in some of the unaccompanied migrant children.

The Home Office, the Department for Education and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government are writing to all local authorities urging them to ‘come forward, play their part and take responsibility’.

A Home Office spokesman described the situation as ‘unprecedented’ and said the burden being placed on Kent council ‘is unacceptable and cannot continue’.

Councils now receive £240 per child per week, with more funding provided for those helping the greatest number of children.

But critics have said the voluntary nature of the scheme renders it ineffective and insist it should be made a mandatory requirement for councils.

The Bishop of Dover, Rt Rev Rose Hudson-Wilkin, the Church of England’s first black female bishop, accused politicians of ‘playing to the gallery’.

‘Putting lives at risk’