Border Force patrol intercepts dinghy carrying 22 migrants in the English Channel off the coast of Dover
- Group were picked up at around 7am off the coast of Dover this morning
- 22 suspected migrants will be medically checked and questioned by officials
- It comes after 20 male migrants were picked up off the UK coast on Friday
A Border Force patrol has intercepted a small dinghy carrying 22 suspected migrants in the English channel.
The group were picked up at around 7am this morning off the coast of Dover, and will now be medically checked and questioned by immigration officials in the coastal town in Kent.
No information regarding ages, gender, or nationalities of the migrants has been released.
It comes after two incidents on Friday where Border Force intercepted a total of 20 male migrants off the UK coast.
A Border Force patrol has intercepted a small dinghy carrying 22 suspected migrants off the coast of Dover. (Pictured: Border Force patrol boat tows a migrant ship back to port this morning)
It comes after 20 men were picked up while trying to cross the English Channel on Friday. The men were processed by authorities and given blankets
Friday’s migrants were stopped by the Coastguard at Dover harbour after two dinghies were spotted.
They were processed by authorities and given blankets after making the trip as temperatures plunged to below 4C on Friday morning.
Around 1,500 asylum seekers have made it into Britain since January, with record numbers risking their lives to get to the UK by small boats.
They are typically picked up by Border Force officers after making it on to British waters – usually off the Kent coast – and brought into Dover to be questioned.
Millions of pounds has been spent by the Home Office in an effort to stop the crossings, but they continued to surge and reached record numbers in the summer.
In August, 336 migrants made it into Britain – including 86 in one day – while a woman drowned after falling overboard during a crossing. Her body was found on Dutch waters weeks after the incident.
The group of men were stopped by the Coastguard at Dover Harbour after they were spotted in a dinghy on Friday
The men picked up on Friday were also in a dingy as they attempted the perilous journey across one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes