Shocking photos have revealed the moment dozens of migrants, packed onto a tiny dinghy, attempted the dangerous crossing between England and France.
The images, taken by a drone, showed a large group of mainly-male asylum seekers crammed onto the small rigid inflatable as it sailed the English Channel.
More than 60 occupants filled the boat, with many dangling perilously from the side as it made its way past huge cargo ships towards the UK,
Border Force vessels later rescued the group and escorted them to an immigration processing centre at the Port of Dover in Kent this morning.
The latest cohort of asylum seekers are set to take the UK’s official 2024 total to more than 3,000 – two days after the House of Lords defeated the Government’s Rwanda deportation bill and sent the plan intended to stop the crossings back to the House of Commons.
Since becoming PM in October 2022, more than 40,000 migrants have attempted to cross the English Channel from France. Mr Sunak is facing growing pressure to tackle the crisis, with the UK shelling out £8million a day to place migrants in hotels.
Migrants are pictured from the air crowded onto a small boat as it crossed the English Channel on Wednesday
Asylum seekers were perched perilously on the side of the inflatable boat – with one even appearing to be holding on to the vessel’s outboard motor
The migrant boat is pictured passing a large cargo ship in the Channel on Wednesday
Dozens of asylum seekers were snapped from the air crossing from France to the UK
Dozens of migrants defied foggy conditions today to attempt the dangerous crossing between England and France in small boats.
After weeks of poor conditions in the strait during the first two months of 2024, people smugglers are taking advantage of calmer weather with 728 migrants intercepted in the 21-mile wide Dover Strait on March 2 and 3 alone.
Border Force boats Typhoon, Ranger and Hurricane have all been seen in the English Channel during the morning.
Home Office official figures released yesterday revealed that 2,983 asylum seekers have arrived aboard 63 boats since January 1.
401 migrants crossed the Channel on Monday – the largest daily total of 2024 so far.
Four migrants have died while trying to make the dangerous crossing from Calais to Dover this week, including a seven-year-old girl who died near Watten, northern France.
The girl died 20 miles inland while trying her family were attempted to use a canal to reach the coast undetected on Sunday.
Three others died after falling into the water off the coast of Cap Gris Nez on February 28.
An investigation by prosecutors in Boulogne-sur-Mer is ongoing after the tragedy last Wednesday.
Last year, 29,437 migrants aboard 601 boats were intercepted in the Channel – the second-highest annual total.
On Monday, peers inflicted a series of heavy defeats on the Government’s Rwanda Bill as the House of Lords renewed an assault on Rishi Sunak’s flagship laws to ‘Stop the Boats’.
They were rescued from the English Channel and taken to the Port of Dover, in Kent
These arrivals are expected to take the official 2024 total for arrivals above 3,000 – two days after the House of Lords defeated the Government’s Rwanda deportation bill
Ministers were resoundingly defeated on amendments to the marquee legislation in the unelected chamber, as peers set up a fresh battle with the House of Commons.
The Lords voted by majorities of more than 100 votes on a series of changes to the Bill, with the size of the defeats the biggest to have been suffered by Mr Sunak as PM.
Peers supported a move to ensure the controversial Bill is fully compliant with domestic and international law.
They also demanded that Parliament cannot declare Rwanda a safe country for housing asylum seekers until a new treaty with Kigali is fully implemented.
In a further change, the Lords voted in favour of establishing a monitoring mechanism able to determine whether the safeguards in the treaty have been, and continue to be, fully implemented.
The UK has been shelling out £8million a day on housing migrants in hotels while soldiers are left in rotting barracks or shifted into shipping containers – with the Home Office this month seeking an emergency £2.6billion cash injection to plug a shortfall in its asylum seeker housing budget.
Last week ministers were accused of shameful ‘double-standards’ after it was revealed British military families were being forced to live in squalid homes while migrants were placed in taxpayer-funded hotels.
An Army family was forced to leave their crumbling home after a wall in the bedroom of their military accommodation collapsed
Meanwhile, Britain is shelling out millions of pounds a day to house migrants in hotels (pictured is one asylum seeker who documented his journey to the UK from Europe in the summer)
A group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, from a Border Force vessel following a small boat incident in the Channel on Sunday February 25
Hundreds of armed forces families have been forced to endure months in crumbling, leaking properties riddled with mould, with some being left in sub-zero temperatures without heating and hot water during the winter.
So appalling is some of the military housing, it led to a serviceman’s two-year-old girl being rushed to hospital for urgent treatment this month after she fell ill while living in a mouldy property, despite the family raising the alarm with defence contractors.
And in the latest development in the scandal, an Army family was forced to leave their crumbling home after a wall in the bedroom of their military property caved in, with their complaints about it allegedly being ignored ‘for three years’.
Former Tory Armed Forces Minister Mark Francois raged: ‘We are operating double standards; some brave military personnel and their loved ones are constantly let down by hapless contractors, while illegal migrants are put up in hotels.