NEW WAVE OF MIGRANTS WADE IN
Fresh pressure piles on Priti Patel as new high of over 400 arrive in a single day
clothes sodden after wading through water or struggling to walk due to cold and exhaustion, migrants arrive in the UK yesterday in scenes that highlight the growing crisis in the channel.
the problem drastically intensified yesterday as more than 400 migrants, a new record, reached British soil from France in just one day.
some even collapsed on the beaches near Dover, such was their frailty after risking the perilous journey.
At least two infants were among other groups brought ashore by RNlI lifeboats and Border Force patrol vessels, along with several toddlers and children.
last night the home office confirmed that 409 migrants arrived yesterday aboard 27 small boats. the previous daily record was 235, set early last month. And it comes after a confirmed 145 migrants reached the UK aboard 18 different small boats on tuesday.
the number who have arrived so far this year is now around 5,500, triple the total that arrived in the whole of 2019, placing home secretary Priti Patel under renewed pressure to resolve the crisis.
sources was solution determined to said the the issue. to home find secretary a ‘robust’ with Miss the Patel French is seeking to allow a new migrant deal boats to be turned back to calais. But an agreement has not yet been reached, despite the UK taxpayer handing over £114million to Paris in the last five years to fund anti-migrant patrols in France. on Britain’s coastline yesterday morning, witnesses said two rigidhulled inflatable boats approached the shore at shakespeare beach, just west of the Port of Dover. At least 14 migrants waded through the surf to the shingle beach, some falling over in the sea. several were clearly exhausted after making it to shore, with one woman collapsing on nearby steps which lead up from the beach.
A witness said she had collapsed complaining of stomach pains and received medical attention.
Describing a woman with blonde hair who was pictured wearing white trainers, black jeans and a black bomber jacket when she arrived at shakespeare beach, the witness said: ‘she was absolutely exhausted, she fell on the floor after getting there.
‘she was given a bottle of Diet coke and she perked up, but she was shivering to the bone.’ Another group of migrants was seen walking up a hill after landing at st Margaret’s at cliffe near Dover.
separately, four dinghies evaded Border Force patrols to land at the Warren beach, near Folkestone, and another group was seen at the foot of the White cliffs of Dover.
lifeboats brought one group of 25 refugees into port yesterday morning, in an operation which began at 6am.
other groups were brought in throughout the rest of the day.
some of the migrants smiled and waved as they arrived while others carried toddlers too young to walk.
At least five children were led or carried into the port from patrol boats after being rescued in the channel from flimsy vessels.
It came as Miss Patel met former Australian prime minister tony Abbott, who introduced controversial tactics to deter asylum seekers in 2013.
In a private meeting they discussed Australia’s operation sovereign Borders which turns migrant boats away and enforces mandatory offshore detention and processing for asylum seekers.
Immigration minister chris Philp told MPs the surge in numbers over recent months was ‘completely
unacceptable’. He revealed officials have identified 1,000 migrants who have arrived in Britain after previously claiming asylum in another European Union country.
The Home Office is now seeking to send them back, he said, but admitted only 185 have been returned under similar circumstances since the end of 2018.
During Prime Minister’s Questions in the Commons yesterday, Tory MP Lee Anderson said the asylum system was ‘broken and being abused’.
Boris Johnson told the House: ‘I have a great deal of sympathy with those who are so desperate as to put their children in dinghies or even children’s paddling pools and try to cross the Channel.
‘But I have to say what they’re doing is falling prey to criminal gangs and they are breaking the law. They’re also undermining the legitimate claims of others who would seek asylum in this country.’
He added: ‘That is why we will take advantage of leaving the EU by changing the Dublin regulations on returns and we will address the rigidities in our laws that makes this country, I’m afraid, a target and a magnet for those who would exploit vulnerable people in this way.’