Maritime security sources have condemned reckless criminal gangs, who sent hundreds of illegal migrants on a dangerous 22-hour Channel crossing overnight.
The migrant arrivals are the first illegal crossings in more than a fortnight as windy conditions in the English Channel subsided on Sunday.
Three migrant boats were launched from beaches around the Dieppe area at 7am yesterday, more than 100 miles south of the normal launch points around Dunkirk and Calais.
They eventually made it to UK waters early this morning, and more than 160 small boat migrants were picked up and taken to Dover harbour.
In the hours that followed, another 150 have arrived at the Kent port.
GB News can reveal that another four migrant boats were launched from the Dieppe area at 9am this morning.
Small boat migrants arriving from France earlier today
|GB NEWS
If all boats make it, it will take the number of illegal immigrant arrivals today to more than 500.
It takes the total number who have crossed from France since the beginning of the year to almost 9,700.
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Migrant crisis, mapped: Key facts as tens of thousands cross Channel | GB NEWSThat figure is around 6,000 fewer than the number who arrived by this same point last year.
Maritime security sources have told GB News the reduction in crossings is likely more to do with the predominance of windy conditions in the Channel than any law enforcement activity.
Migrant crossings have now reached over 200,000 since records began in 2018 | GETTYHowever, since the UK Government signed a new £662 million security deal with France recently, there has been a noticeable increase in police patrols around the Dunkirk and Calais areas.
That has forced people smugglers to launch boats from beaches much further down the French coast and across the border in Belgium.
Payments to France have proved controversial, particularly after French police were spotted taking photographs of migrants leaving the shores of the Calais coast | PAA Home Office spokesperson said: “This Government is bearing down on small boat crossings, with removals of small boat migrants at record levels and asylum claims down by 12 per cent.
“The Home Secretary has signed a landmark new deal with France to boost enforcement action on beaches and put people smugglers behind bars. This builds on joint work that has stopped over 42,000 illegal migrants attempting to cross the Channel since the election.
“We have removed or deported almost 70,000 people who were here illegally – an increase of 41 per cent – and are going further to remove the incentives that draw illegal migrants to this country.”