About 80 illegal migrants have landed in the UK this morning – amid fears ‘flat and calm’ conditions will see a bumper number crossing the Channel today.
Dozens of asylum seekers sailed from France overnight and were picked up Border Force cutter ‘Defender’ before disembarking at the Port of Dover, in Kent.
It comes as Britain braces itself for its hottest day of the year, with temperatures expected to reach a sizzling high of 32C in London.
The arrivals have ignited fresh fears that human trafficking gangs will ramp up their criminal crossing trade, after Labour axed both the Tory’s Rwanda deportation plan and Bibby Stockholm migrant barge scheme.
Migrant crossings have already hit a record high this year, with 255 people having risked the journey on Sunday, taking the total for the year so far to 16,457 the Home Office said.
Today’s arrivals will almost certainly bring the figure up to more than 16,500, smashing the previous record for the end of July of 16,420 in 2022 as well as last year’s total of 14,732.
The Home Office has not yet published the figures for the number of people who crossed the Channel on Monday. These will be released later today, potentially bumping the total figure even higher.
It comes as those embarking on the perilous journey were filmed mocking Britain, shouting: ‘This is for Rishi Sunak.’
French police simply stood and watched a group setting off from the country’s northern coast as numbers continue to rise.
The rising numbers make the challenge to Sir Keir Starmer’s new Labour Government clear.
So far his most significant move on immigration has been to scrap the Conservative threat to fly asylum seekers to Rwanda.
On Sunday, a so-called ‘taxi boat’ was seen motoring out of the harbour at Gravelines, near Dunkirk. One of the occupants of the half-full dinghy shouted to onlookers: ‘This is for Rishi Sunak’ – perhaps in reference to the former prime minister’s now junked policy.
When the dinghy reached the sea, it simply turned right and headed back towards the neighbouring beach.
A large group of migrants – including women, children, and even an infant in a chest-mounted baby carrier – emerged from the dunes and walked towards the sea. They then waded in and waited for the ‘taxi boat’ to reach them.
When it did, as many as possible clambered aboard. As witnessed before by the Daily Mail, police on the beach watched without lifting a finger.
French officers, funded with £100million a year of UK taxpayers’ money to ‘stop the boats’, are instructed not to interfere with dinghies already afloat or to hold back migrants already in the water for fear of being culpable for drownings.
Over the weekend, police instead focused on stopping children and family groups from reaching the water.
Volunteers from refugee charity Utopia 56 were also at the scene over the weekend, checking boats at sea were not in trouble, offering fresh clothes to those who failed to board and monitoring police tactics.
Volunteer Pablo Eymard-Picollec said of the families who turned back: ‘I think a few police officers talked to them and told them to stay on the beach.
‘The boat was really, really crowded, so I think they assumed it was too risky for them to go.’
Early on Sunday one migrant died and another 34 were rescued by French coastguards after a ‘heavily loaded’ boat got into difficulty.
In the Commons, Reform UK MP Lee Anderson asked: ‘Does the Home Secretary agree with me it’s time now to stop paying the French any more money until they stop being complicit in this evil trade?’
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the crossings were ‘extremely dangerous’ as she mentioned the latest death, adding: ‘Criminal gangs are deliberately cramming boats to maximise their profits, and have been getting away with it for far too long.
‘That is why we need a new Border Security Command in place, to work not simply with the French police but also with forces and organisations right across Europe, and beyond, to pursue the gangs and to prevent the boats reaching the French coast in the first place.’
In a statement, a Home Office spokesman said: ‘We all want to see an end to dangerous small boat crossings, which are undermining border security and putting lives at risk.
‘The new Government is taking steps to boost our border security, setting up a new Border Security Command which will bring together our intelligence and enforcement agencies, equipped with new counter-terror-style powers and hundreds of personnel stationed in the UK and overseas, to smash the criminal smuggling gangs making millions in profit.’