77 migrants aboard two vessels were intercepted and processed in Dover on Sunday as the migrant crossings hit its tenth consecutive day.
The arrivals came as dozens more migrants have been brought ashore by Border Force as illegal crossings continue unabated.
The cumulative number of arrivals by small boats in 2024 now stands at a provisional total of 8,278. This is 34 per cent higher than the total at the equivalent point last year, which was 6,192. So the task of putting a stop to this has clearly failed.
A group of mainly male migrants were seen arriving at the Port of Dover aboard Border Force vessels while wearing orange lifejackets, before being taken into the immigration processing centre.
It comes just days after the Home Office said it had paused publishing statistics on the number of migrants prevented from crossing the Channel in small boats. It followed ‘consultation with the French’, the update said, and the department would ‘provide further updates on the publication of prevention data as soon as possible’.
Exact reasons for the U-turn have not been disclosed, but the rising numbers are a huge embarrassment for the UK Government, who have promised to curb the crossings.
A Home Office spokesperson said ‘The unacceptable number of people who continue to cross the Channel demonstrates exactly why we must get flights to Rwanda off the ground as soon as possible.’
We will stop the boats said the Prime Minister and his Government have done next to nothing. It is a ticking timebomb
‘We continue to work closely with French police who are facing increasing violence and disruption on their beaches as they work tirelessly to prevent these dangerous, illegal and unnecessary journeys.’
It is obvious that either the French are not doing a good enough job because it is not really their problem or they also require more resource to cover their extensive coastline.
You can get up-to-date statistics for the migrant crisis by checking out the website by Migrant Watch UK here.