Border Force patrols intercepts boat with seven suspected migrants on board in the English Channel and brings it into Dover
- Pictures showed Border Force boat docking in harbour and people disembarking
- It’s the latest migrant landing since Boxing Day, when group of 49 were detained
- Home Secretary vowed illegal migrant crossings of Channel would be halved
A boat with around seven suspected migrants on board was intercepted in the English Channel this morning and brought to the marina at Dover.
Pictures showed a Border Force boat docking in the harbour and several people disembarking before being taken away in vans.
It is the latest migrant landing since Boxing Day, when officials detained a group of 49 migrants crammed into four small boats.
Pictures showed a Border Force boat docking in the harbour at the Port of Dover this morning
They included Iranian, Iraqi and Afghan citizens – and one child.
French authorities rescued a further 14 people who set off with the other 49 but got into trouble off the waters of Boulogne-sur-Mer.
The Home Office responded to the incident by saying that illegal migration is a ‘criminal activity’ and illegal immigrants would be sent back to mainland Europe.
More than 1,700 people have crossed the Channel in small boats this year. In October Home Secretary Priti Patel vowed that illegal migrant crossings of the Channel will be halved by the end of the month.
Last month, at least 129 migrants made it into the UK by making the life-risking trip across the Dover Strait, one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.
The migrant crisis erupted last November, with hundreds arriving in the final two months of 2018.
Several people were seen disembarking before being taken away in vans. It is the latest migrant landing at Dover since Boxing Day
It prompted then-Home Secretary Sajid Javid to declare a ‘major incident’, calling in extra Border Force cutters and the Government spending millions of pounds to tackle the issue.
But the problem has worsened throughout 2019, and Home Secretary Priti Patel revealed in October she had agreed an ‘action plan’ with France.
She said patrols across the French coast had been doubled to stop people smugglers, and the Home Office had already funded drones to scour France’s beaches – but the crossings have continued.
It is the latest migrant landing since Boxing Day, when officials detained a group of 49 migrants crammed into four small boats (pictured arriving at Dover)