Border Force bring dozens of migrants ashore in UK on Royal Navy’s first day patrolling Channel… after Tory MP warned government’s Rwanda plan will see INCREASE in asylum seekers hoping to ‘cross before it comes in’
- Around 50 migrants were brought ashore this morning, though official numbers have not been announced
- According to Home Office figures, at least 4,617 people have reached the UK by small boat so far this year
- It comes after Boris Johnson confirmed plans on Wednesday to send future asylum seekers to Rwanda
- Conservative MP Simon Hoare warned last night the new policy could lead to a short-term surge in crossings
At least 50 migrants arrived in the UK by boat today on the first official day of Navy patrols in the Channel – after a Tory MP warned the government’s Rwanda plan would see an increase in asylum seekers trying to get to Britain before it’s implemented.
Between 25 and 30 migrants reached the Dover harbour, Kent around 2.30am this morning before a second group, of around 30 people, was escorted to shore on board Border Force cutter Valiant shortly before 10am.
The Home Office and the MoD are yet to confirm the official number of migrants to arrive in the UK today, or on Wednesday or Thursday – but it is thought more than 1,000 people made the perilous crossing.
According to official Home Office figures, at least 4,617 people have reached the UK by small boat so far this year but recent arrivals could bring the total number of migrant crossings for 2022 to more than 5,500.
It comes after Boris Johnson confirmed plans on Wednesday to send future asylum seekers to Rwanda – insisting those attempting to reach the UK by small boat are mostly young men ‘not directly fleeing imminent peril’.
The plans could see tens of thousands of migrants flown to the central African state. The first flight is expected to leave before the end of next month – and a minister today confirmed anyone who has arrived in Britain this year could be sent.
But critics of the plan continue to attack it over the sheer cost – estimated at up to £30,000 per person – and Rwanda’s human rights record.
And Conservative MP Simon Hoare warned last night that the new policy could lead to a short-term surge in crossings. He said: ‘All this will do is mean we’ll see a vast amount of people trying [to cross] now before this comes in’.
Mr Johnson also previously announced navy vessels will patrol the waters in a bid to tackle illegal migrant crossings, with a heavy Navy presence near Dover today.
According to real-time ship tracker website, MarineTraffic, several Naval vessels are currently active in the waters – including HMS Tyne, HMS Puncher, HMS Express and HMS Example.
As well as the four Archer-class Patrol vessels, a further two MoD safety and training boats are also present in the Channel.
Border Force vessels are also present in the Channel but it is not known if any of the Navy and MoD vessels have been involved in migrant assistance yet. Live flight-tracker site, Flightradar24, also shows a drone flying from Lydd, Kent and over the Dover Strait.
Migrants wait to disembark at the Port of Dover after being rescued while crossing the English Channel near Dover
A migrant being helped ashore in a wheelchair. Between 25 and 30 migrants reached the Dover harbour, Kent around 2.30am this morning, before a second group
According to official Home Office figures, at least 4,617 people have reached the UK by small boat so far this year but recent arrivals could bring the total number of migrant crossings for 2022 to more than 5,500
The increased round £50 million will be spent on bolstering surveillance in the Channel – including new ships, military drones, and a Wildcat helicopter.
A Ministry of Defence (MoD) spokesperson said: ‘As part of the Government’s efforts to tackle migration, the Ministry of Defence is taking primacy for the UK’s operational response to small boat migration in the English Channel.
‘The Armed Forces will supplement Border Force assets, expertise and experience and provide operational oversight and coordination of maritime operations.
‘Together, they will deliver the Government’s objectives of protecting safety of life sea whilst ensuring control of the UK’s borders.’
Despite the government’s new plans to tackle the influx of migrant crossings, between 450 and 500 migrants are thought to have arrived in the UK by small boat on Thursday.
Soldiers wearing camouflage fatigues, high-vis vests, and life-jackets, were seen leading them along the gangway at Dover to be processed.
The MoD later confirmed that the army have been deployed to the harbour to relieve pressure from Border Force officials.
Shortly before 3pm on Thursday, 20 migrants landed at Greatstone Beach in Kent – just a mile-and-a-half from Lydd, where the Prime Minister gave his press conference saying migrants using illegal routes to ‘jump the queue’ will be ‘swiftly and humanely removed to a third country or their country of origin’.
Over 3,000 migrants made the treacherous journey last month alone – the highest monthly figure since November 2021 when 6,869 people crossed the Channel.
3,075 people arrived on British soil in March – more than the total number of people who made the journey in January, February, March and April combined last year, and over triple the 831 who arrived in the entirety of March in 2021.
This level of small boat crossings was not seen on a monthly basis until the height of summer in 2021.
Wednesday is believed to have been the busiest day for migrant crossings so far this year – after heavy winds in the Channel temporarily put a stop to small boat crossings for two weeks.
A member of the British military assists a migrant woman arriving at the Port of Dover after being rescued while crossing the English Channel
Migrants wait on a boat, as it arrives at the Port of Dover, after being rescued while crossing the English Channel, in Dove
Over 3,000 migrants made the treacherous journey last month alone – the highest monthly figure since November 2021 when 6,869 people crossed the Channel
Migrants are escorted by Border Force officers and members of the military after crossing the English Channel in Dover
Under a scheme designed to crack down on migrants landing on British shores after crossing the Channel in small boats, the UK intends to provide those deemed to have arrived unlawfully with a one-way ticket to Rwanda
Migrants, who have arrived at the Port of Dover after being rescued while crossing the English Channel, are transported in a bus to a processing facility
Monday saw UK officials intercept 28 people from one boat, while 24 people were prevented from reaching Britain by French authorities. And on Tuesday UK authorities escorted 39 migrants to the UK.
The last crossing before that was on March 28 when 386 people made the perilous journey across the 21-mile Dover Strait in 12 boats.
A total of 28,526 migrants crossed the Dover Strait last year – significantly higher than the 8,410 who arrived in 2020 – but the number of crossings is expected to increase over the coming weeks as Spring brings warmer weather and calmer conditions at sea.
Border Force union bosses have warned that this year could see at least 60,000 people arrive in the UK by small boat.
Minister for Justice and Tackling Illegal Migration, Tom Pursglove MP, said: ‘The rise in dangerous Channel crossings is unacceptable.
How will the new Rwanda migrant scheme work?
Cross-channel arrivals assessed and anyone deemed an economic migrant rather than a refugee is sent to Rwanda
- Initial agreement worth £120million over five years
- Failed immigrants urged to start new life in Africa
- Initially based at hostel in Kigali
- Hope House is currently being used as budget accommodation for tourists
- Privately owned, the East African nation’s government is understood to be in negotiations to lease the property
- Memorandum of understanding (MOU) says Government will screen asylum seekers ‘without delay’ after arrival in the UK
- All requests will require approval from Rwanda before relocation
- Nation can refuse to take people with criminal records
- People who cross the Channel in small boats will undergo initial checks at the Western Jet Foil facility in Dover
- Further checks at a processing site in Manston, Kent. Where their claim is deemed inadmissible, they may be removed to a ‘third safe country’.
- Royal Navy to lead Channel policing role, helping Border Force from today
- PM attacked ‘a formidable army of politically motivated lawyers’ who have thwarted previous action
- PM: ‘Our compassion may be infinite but our capacity to help people is not. We can’t ask the British taxpayer to write a blank cheque to cover the costs of anyone who might want to come and live here.’
‘Not only are they an overt abuse of our immigration laws but they also impact on the UK taxpayer, risk lives and our ability to help refugees come to the UK via safe and legal routes. Rightly, the British public has had enough.
‘Through our Nationality and Borders Bill, we’re cracking down on people smugglers and fixing the broken system by making it a criminal offence to knowingly arrive in the UK illegally and introducing a maximum sentence of life imprisonment for those who facilitate illegal entry into our country.’
Meanwhile, Priti Patel has warned that up to 65,000 people could cross the Channel in small boats this year – almost double last year’s record – as she seeks to see off external and internal criticism of plans to send thousands of migrants to Rwanda.
She revealed the estimate as Boris Johnson pledged that the first flights taking those illegally arriving in Britain 4,000 miles to east Africa would take off within weeks.
The Prime Minister pledged to do ‘whatever it takes’ to push through his landmark scheme to tackle the small-boats crisis in the Channel and smash people trafficking gangs. Some 28,000 people made the perilous journey in 2021.
Revealing details of the dramatic strategy, Mr Johnson said ‘tens of thousands’ of Channel migrants would be sent with a one-way ticket.
The Daily Mail understands the first flight is expected to leave before the end of next month – and a minister today confirmed anyone who has arrived in Britain this year could be sent.
But critics of the plan continue to attack it over the sheer cost – estimated at up to £30,000 per person – and Rwanda’s human rights record.
ITV reported that Home Office civil servants have asked for a ministerial direction from Ms Patel over the scheme – meaning they have concerns over the plan.
Immigration Minister Tom Pursglove told Sky News that it was important to stop people ‘putting their lives in the hands of these evil criminal gangs’ who run the cross-channel boats, often charging thousands of pounds per person.
‘The point I would make is that we are determined to get on and deliver this policy as quickly as possible without needless delay,’ he said.
‘We are now getting into the stage where we implement this policy quickly and anyone who has arrived in the United Kingdom from January 1 is in scope to be relocated to Rwanda if they’ve arrived through illegal means.
‘That is an important point to get across.
‘If you’ve arrived since then, it could well be that you are transferred as part of this arrangement.’
But Conservative former cabinet minister Andrew Mitchell said the plan to send migrants to Rwanda was ‘immoral’ and involved ‘eye-watering’ costs.
She revealed the estimate as Boris Johnson pledged that the first flights taking those illegally arriving in Britain 4,000 miles to east Africa would take off within weeks.
Migrants travelling to the UK on small boats will be put on jets and sent to Rwanda while their applications are processed
A view of facilities at Hope House, a hostel in Nyabugogo, the Gasabo district of the capital city Kigali, in Rwanda
The former international development secretary told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme he recognised that ministers were attempting to tackle ‘what is a terrible problem’ after 28,000 people came to the UK ‘illicitly’ in 2021.
Mr Mitchell said: ‘The Government is quite rightly trying to break the smugglers’ sordid and deathly model, and so I am absolutely behind them in doing that.
‘The problem with the scheme that they have announced is that I don’t think it will work.
‘It is impractical, it is being condemned by churches and civil society, it is immoral and, above all for conservative advocates, it is incredible expensive.
‘The costs are eye-watering. You’re going to send people 6,000 miles into central Africa – it looked when it was discussed in Parliament before that it would actually be cheaper to put each asylum seeker in the Ritz hotel in London.’
Ministers are braced for a fierce legal fight to stop opponents from scuppering the scheme before it starts. Mr Johnson accepted that the plan would be ‘challenged in the courts’, but insisted he was confident about its legality.
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