Migrant crisis: 290 cross in small boats as more than TWO THOUSAND making journey in 2024
The arrivals are the first small boat crossings since Saturday February 17
GB NEWS
More than 2,000 small boat migrants have crossed the English Channel so far this year, after another 290 arrived in Dover on Sunday.
GB News can reveal that Border Force vessels intercepted at least six small boats in UK waters today, after people smugglers took advantage of a brief weather window.
The arrivals were the first small boat crossings since Saturday February 17, when 111 people made the journey in three small boats.
GB News Kent producer counted 83 migrants as they disembarked the Border Force catamaran Defender at Dover harbour around 7am today.
Those arrivals, mainly men but with some women and children, were taken to the Border Force migrant processing centre in Dover.
GB News understands they were picked up from two separate small boats, that left the coast of France in the early hours of Sunday.
GB News understands they were picked up from two separate small boats
GB NEWS
Four hours later, the Border Force vessel Typhoon arrived in Dover, packed out with migrants.
GB News counted 152 people in total, who are believed to have been intercepted and picked up as they crossed in three small boats.
UK and French authorities had been braced today for another surge in small boat arrivals, after winds eased in the Channel for the first time in eight days.
Sources suggested as many as 12 small boats might attempt to make the crossing on Sunday.
Border Force vessel Typhoon arrived in Dover, packed out with migrants
GB NEWS
By late afternoon, Border officials had intercepted at least one more small boat as it crossed into UK waters.
Fifty five migrants from that boat were landed at Dover harbour by the Border Force vessel Hurricane just before 5pm.
Winds in the Channel have now picked up again, with storms due to roll in later on Sunday.
People smugglers have been condemned for pushing out migrant boats in bad weather, resulting in a number of recent fatal incidents.
On January 14, five migrants died when their small boat got into difficulties in bad weather just off the coast of France.
The Prime Minister has promised to Stop the Boats as one of the Government's five key pledges, and has claimed his policies helped cut the numbers crossing last year by a third.
But despite very poor winter weather conditions, criminal gangs seem undeterred.
Border Force officials are preparing for the possibility of more migrant arrivals when weather conditions are expected to improve again midweek.