Migrant rescues in English Channel meant coastguard was too busy to come to aid of stricken yacht

The coastguard were too busy dealing with migrant rescues yesterday morning to assist a yacht and kayak who believed they were in trouble in the English Channel.

Border Force, RNLI and several French vessels scrambled with the coastguard at around 5am on Saturday to deal with reports of 15 small boats attempting to reach UK shores.

At least seven of the dinghies left the coast of Gravelines – which lies between Calais and Dunkirk – where a group of men, women and children were seen boarding a dinghy at a beach.

And while maritime resources were being designated to stop these small boats, a yacht on the Channel had issued an alert to say that it begun taking on water.

HM Coastguard told The Times it had been ‘responding to small boats activity in the Channel’ but added that ‘the co-ordination of multiple, simultaneous incidents is not unusual, and at no time was public safety compromised’. 

The coastguard added that they were also satisfied the yacht and kayakers did not need assistance.

A Home Office spokesperson also told the newspaper they want to ‘end dangerous small boat crossings, which threaten lives and undermine our border security’ and that the government had a ‘serious plan’ to do so.

Before the migrants began heading towards Britain, French police were seen watching on as they piled onto the beaches with one officer even appearing to take pictures on his phone.

Boats were this morning seen crossing the Channel with many setting off in the early hours

A group of men and women, which included multiple small children, was seen boarding a dinghy at a beach in Gravelines, which lies between Calais and Dunkirk

French police stood back and watched as entire families packed themselves into an overcrowded small boat heading across the Channel to the UK this morning

After the boat was loaded, French authorities were then pictured escorting a small boat from aboard their own.

There have not been any arrivals of asylum seekers crossing the Channel in small boats for a week, the latest Home Office figures show.

But new data did reveal that France is intercepting fewer potential migrants than at any time since the phenomenon began, despite a £480 million deal with the UK’s neighbour to help stop crossings.

Around 38 percent of people attempting to make the dangerous crossing have been intercepted so far this year, some 8,347 compared to 13,167 who have arrived in the UK.

This is compared to authorities preventing 45 percent of crossings last year and 46 percent in 2023.

It is in spite of a £480 million, three-year deal with the French, secured by former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in March 2023, to double the number of officers patrolling beaches from 400 to 800.

The deal also involved setting up a joint command centre and a detention centre.

The fall is believed to be due to a change in tactics by the heartless people smuggling gangs taking advantage of young families’ desperation.

A French coastguard boat is seen monitoring a boat packed with people on Saturday morning in the sea off the coast of France

A man carries a young child to a small boat off the coast of France in a bid to reach the UK by crossing the Channel

Police officers in France were accused of standing and watching without intervening, with one even spotted appearing to take photographs on his phone

Instead of loads boats right next to the shore, smugglers instead now inflate the boat and get it out to sea before people wade towards it, often reaching up to the chest or neck in water before they are pulled on board.

This prevents police making arrests on the shoreline and means Britain is instead relying on the French Coastguard to conduct rescues and returning people to France after these instead.

In a possible sign of hope for the government an ongoing series of legal challenges has the potential to stem the flow of migrants through Europe, while France recently changed its laws to allow police officers to use their own boats and intercept crossings in shallow waters.

But 2025 is on course to set a record for Channel crossings, with more than 13,000 people having arrived so far, up 30 percent on the number recorded at this point last year, according to the latest data.

It comes after Sir Keir Starmer has pledged to crack down on small boat crossings including with measures targeting smuggling gangs.

The Home Secretary has previously said gangs have been taking advantage of a higher number of calm weather days to make crossings.

The new crossings come just weeks after the Prime Minister announced plans for ‘return hubs’ to send migrants back to the country they came to the UK from more easily.

The Prime Minister is eyeing up deals with Balkan countries, and some in Africa, to house failed asylum seekers.

The Home Secretary has previously said gangs have been taking advantage of a higher number of calm weather days to make crossings

People hoping to reach the UK to claim asylum wade into the Channel to catch a dinghy piloted by several men

A young boy and his family prepare to board a boat in a bid to reach the UK from France

A couple are seen placing their phones into waterproof bags ahead of entering the water to board a small dinghy

Labour is looking to strike deals with the likes of Serbia, Kosovo, North Macedonia and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Sir Keir had hoped Albania would join the scheme but was left embarrassed earlier this month when he travelled there, only to be publicly rebuffed by PM Edi Rama.

Speaking in Albania earlier this month, Sir Keir said: ‘What now we want to do and are having discussions of, talks of, is return hubs which is where someone has been through the system in the UK, they need to be returned and we have to make sure they’re returned effectively and we’ll do that, if we can, through return hubs.

‘So that’s what the talks are about. I would say in this area no single measure is going to be the measure that is, if you like, a silver bullet.

‘By putting it all together – arrests, seizures, agreements with other countries, returning people who shouldn’t be here, and return hubs, if we can through these talks to add to our armoury, will allow us to bear down on this vile trade and to make sure that we stop those people crossing the Channel.’

Downing Street said the plans were ‘entirely different’ to the last government’s flagship Rwanda deportation scheme.

The new plan will involve sending paying to send potentially thousands of failed asylum seekers to the Balkans, rather than holding them in the UK until they can be removed.

In some cases, those involved will be from countries like Afghanistan which are deemed too dangerous to return people to.

A young boy appears nervous as he is held on a small boat transporting refugees and migrants to the UK

Criminal gangs are increasingly overloading boats with up to 100 people as they make money from individuals’ desperation

A group of people thought to be migrants walk towards the sea to board a small boat leaving the beach at Gravelines, France

Sir Keir was criticised by some earlier this month after delivering a speech in which he pledged to crack down on immigration and said the UK was at risk of becoming an ‘island of strangers’.

But liberals said his words had echoes of Enoch Powell’s ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech in 1968, which was accused of stoking years of racism and division in the UK.

Speaking on May 12, Sir Keir said he would give Brits what they had ‘asked for time and time again’ and ‘significantly’ reduce eye-watering immigration that has been inflicting ‘incalculable damage’.

The Home Office estimates the government’s package will bring down annual inflows by around 100,000. This figure reached a record of nearly one million under the Tories.

In a pivotal moment, he also rejected the Treasury orthodoxy that high immigration drives growth – pointing out the economy has stagnated in recent years.

Under the blueprint, skills thresholds will be hiked and rules on fluency in English toughened.

People thought to be migrants scramble onboard a small boat in a bid to reach the UK

The remains of a small boat on the beach in Gravelines, France, following an unsuccessful attempt by people thought to be migrants to reach the UK

A young boy cries as he is carried into the sea to a small boat hoping to reach the UK

Migrants will also be required to wait 10 years for citizenship rather than the current five, and face deportation for even lower-level crimes.

Graduate visas will be reduced to 18 months, and a new levy introduced on income that universities generate from international students.

Requirements that sponsoring institutions must meet in order to recruit international students are also being tightened.

Official figures showed net long-term inflows into the UK were 431,000 in the year to December, compared with 860,000 across 2023.

Numbers had dropped to 739,000 in the year to last June – just before the election – with the peak remaining 906,000 in the 12 months to June 2023.

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