Channel-crossing migrants hits 20,000 total for the year

This is the moment migrants celebrated arriving into the UK by chanting ‘Yay, UK is good’ as they were ferried into the port in Dover by RNLI crews.

The video, which was shared on social media, shows about a dozen migrants travelling onboard the RNLI vessel earlier today – one of a number of groups making the channel crossing this morning. 

While the boat arrives into the port, migrants can be heard shouting ‘Yay, UK is good’ and ‘I love UK’. 

More than 20,000 migrants have now crossed the English Channel by small boat this year alone. 

The groups continued to take advantage of the calm weather this morning after authorities confirmed they had ‘rescued or intercepted’ 456 people in 15 boats on Tuesday.

This took the total for 2021 so far to 20,198 migrants – more than double the 8,410 who arrived in Britain last year. 

And more migrants were pictured aboard the Morrell, an RNLI lifeboat based at Dungeness, Kent, bringing the first group in to Dover Marina shortly before 7am.

Two men wearing lifejackets were seen being walked up the gangway by Immigration Enforcement for processing while their small black dinghy was towed into harbour.

Approximately 40 more migrants were seen packed onto Border Force cutter Hunter before disembarking around 8am.

The Morrell returned to the harbour again with around 30 people on board half an hour later.

Border Force’s largest catamaran Hurricane has also been bringing dozens of migrants to shore.

It had to double park with a lifeboat and wait to disembark its rescued occupants, draped in red blankets for warmth, around 10.30am this morning.

Many of the men carried their possessions in clear plastic bags. 

The RNLI’s Dungeness vessel was also said to be working through the night on search and rescue.

Onlookers monitoring activity in the Channel off the Kent coast predict today could see higher numbers of arrivals than Tuesday.

People smugglers are using the brief break in bad weather to push as many boats from French shores as they possibly can after a week-long lull in crossings.

They appear to be unfazed by the added risk of using nighttime hours to send more migrants on the perilous voyage.

French authorities were called to rescue multiple boats in difficulty on Monday night continuing into Tuesday with the assistance of French Navy helicopter Dauphin to search for migrants in the dead of night.

The Maritime Prefecture of the Channel and the North Sea said French Navy rescue tug Abeille Languedoc saved 108 migrants in three rescue operations before dropping them off at Loon-Plage.

All-weather boat Jean Bart II of the National Society for Rescue at Sea rescued 32 more and took them to the port of Dunkirk.

The SNSM’s Notre Dame du Risban vessel took a further 33 back to Calais port.

And the Dunkirk port security brigade recovered 36 migrants who were returned to Loon-Plage. 

It comes after migrants arriving yesterday became the first to undertake the dangerous crossing in a week, and dozens were brought in to Dover Marina, Kent, before 9am.

Around 12 men were sat in a white and blue rigid hulled inflatable boat being towed into harbour by Border Force shortly after 8am. 

They were followed by another 10 people draped in blue blankets for warmth around 45 minutes later. 

A third group consisting of around eight migrants wearing orange lifejackets were brought in on a Border Force boat shortly afterwards.

They all disembarked at the harbour and were escorted up the gangway by Immigration Enforcement for processing.

The RNLI’s Dover Lifeboat went out around 9.30am to rescue around 30 more migrants.

A girl of primary school age was on board when it returned to harbour again around noon.

Border Force cutter Valiant had been intercepting migrants in the Channel and transferring them onto smaller RHIBs. 

Their vessel Hunter was also on search and rescue patrols off the Kent coast after around 25 migrants were spotted in a dinghy.

The men were brought into harbour in the hull alongside a tropical-themed blow up boat decorated with pictures of colourful flowers and exotic parrots.

More migrants continued to make the perilous 21-mile journey across the Dover Strait into the late afternoon due to good visibility – but conditions at sea remained choppy.

They were among the first arrivals in a week since 145 arrived in five boats  on October 26.

The Home Office confirmed figures late on Tuesday night.

It said French authorities also prevented an additional 343 migrants from reaching the UK by intercepting seven boats. 

Stormy weather has made the treacherous trip even more life-threatening – as tragically shown when at least one migrant was presumed dead in an emergency incident off Harwich, Essex.

Their very tiny boat is believed to have drifted off course in the high winds and could have been at sea for as long as 72 hours before two migrants were rescued.

October saw a total of 2,669 migrants make the Channel crossing in 92 boats.

Elsewhere, maritime gendarmerie coastal surveillance boat Escaut recovered 34 migrants while Customs Coast Guard patroller Jacques Oudart Fourmentinis saved 49 people in two operations. 

That is six times more than the 463 who arrived in 33 boats in the same month last year. 

Dan O’Mahoney, Clandestine Channel Threat Commander, said: ‘These journeys are illegal, dangerous, unnecessary and facilitated by violent criminal gangs profiting from misery.

‘We are working with the French to stop boats leaving their beaches and crack down on the criminals driving these crossings.

‘People should claim asylum in the first safe country they reach. The Government’s New Plan for Immigration will fix the system, making it firm on those who abuse it and fair on those in genuine need.’