Channel arrivals beat last year’s total in just 22 days

MORE migrants have reached Britain via the Channel so far this month than in the whole of last year.

Despite pledges by Home Secretary Priti Patel to make the route ‘unviable’, 393 made their way here on Tuesday – the second-highest total this year.

The numbers would have far surpassed the 416 who arrived in Britain on September 2 had the French authorities not prevented at least 98 by destroying their boats in the Calais area. The Home Office yesterday revealed that Border Force officials intercepted 26 boats on Tuesday and brought to shore the occupants, including babies and children.

At least 1,880 migrants made it to Britain via the Channel in the first 22 days of this month, surpassing the 1,800 who made the journey in the whole of 2019.

The huge influx – coupled with a shortage of accommodation owing to the pandemic – forced the Home Office this week to open two migrant ‘camps’ to house those waiting for asylum claims to be processed. The Government says the move could save taxpayers up to 50 per cent of the cost of placing migrants in hotels.

Yesterday, men bussed into a former Army barracks near Folkestone in Kent described Britain as a ‘wonderful place’.

They are free to come and go as long as they return by 9pm, which has caused consternation among some residents who thought they would be detained. YouTube ‘activists’ have been patrolling the site, known as Napier Barracks, and uploading footage online. Amid increasingly ugly scenes, police were called ‘traitors’ and some migrants were followed and filmed as they left the camp to explore the area.

Large protests broke out at the other site, a former Army training centre near Tenby on Monday night, prompting Welsh first minister Mark Drakeford to claim it was a target for hard-Right extremists.