Record 430 migrants cross channel
AT least 430 migrants made the journey across the English Channel to the UK on Monday, a new record for a single day.
Dozens of people, including women and young children, were seen walking ashore after one beach landing on the Kent coast, while more arrived elsewhere.
Monday’s figure passes the previous daily high of 416 set in September 2020.
High numbers of crossings have continued this summer despite Home Secretary Priti Patel’s vow to make the Channel crossings “unviable”.
Also on Monday, plans for sweeping reforms of the asylum system, dubbed the anti-refugee Bill by critics and campaigners, were debated again in Parliament. In
Dungeness in Kent, around 50 people were seen landing on a beach after crossing aboard in a single dinghy.
Some raised their hands in celebration as they stood on the beach, while others sat down on the shingle shoreline amid 24C sunshine.
The large dinghy is believed to have left northern France or Belgium earlier on Monday before crossing the dangerous 21-mile Dover Strait.
The vessel had been watched by the RNLI as it got closer and closer to the coast before eventually landing on the beach at around 1pm.
Among the arrivals were women and children, some too young to walk, and some people had to be supported as they walked on to the beach.