An illegal migrant has chronicled his perilous journey from France to England in an astonishing series of videos on TikTok.
The asylum seeker, thought to be an Afghan national, recorded his trip through France before crossing the Channel on a packed boat and arriving at a migrant hotel in England.
The series of clips, released earlier this week by Rahat Popal, begins with him travelling by train to northern France alongside two other men.
Later, a video appears to show him marching with a group of other migrants as they prepare to make the voyage from the French coast to southern England.
The man then films himself crammed on a tiny dinghy with dozens of other migrants – mostly young men with many perched precariously on the edge of the overloaded boat – as they pass by a large cargo ship in the Channel.
An illegal migrant has chronicled his perilous journey from France into England in an astonishing series of videos on TikTok
The man, thought to be an Afghan national, posted a series of videos showing him travelling by train through France, laughing with friends as they cram onto tiny dinghy to cross the Channel
Later, the man films himself reclining in a hotel room and watching TV somewhere in England after having been rescued by the RNLI in the Channel
One of his pals smiles to the camera while another gives a thumbs up. On the floor of the rigid inflatable, a woman is pictured cradling a small child.
Another clip, filmed by a friend, later shows two RNLI vessels intercepting the packed boat and rescuing the asylum seekers.
The man is then filmed relaxing on a bed in a migrant hotel, thought to be in the Greater London area, watching TV before beaming at the camera.
News of the videos comes as it today emerged 661 migrants on 15 boats had arrived in the UK on Monday – the third busiest day in 2023 – bringing the total number of arrivals this year to more than 18,000.
A further 337 arrived in five vessels – an average of 67 in each – on Sunday and 130 in three dinghies on Saturday.
Human traffickers operating on the French coast have been piling more migrants on rigid boats to make the dangerous crossing.
In a blatant disregard for life – which earlier this month saw six migrants drowning in the Channel – numbers crammed on dinghies have swelled from around 40 at the start of the crisis to close to 70 on average now.
In one clip, the migrant TikToker appears to film himself with friends as they take a train across France
Later, another clips shows him walking with a group of other people – thought to be migrants
In another clip, the man films himself on a cramped boat as they cross the English Channel
Conditions on the vessel were perilous, with some migrants perched dangerously on the edge of the craft, while others – including a woman and child – was sat in the middle of the boat
News of the videos comes as it today emerged 661 migrants on 15 boats had arrived in the UK on Monday
A group of men, women and children are brought to safety in the UK on Tuesday
Border Force officials escort 50 migrants into Dover Docks, Kent on Tuesday
Many of the arrivals are forced to straddle the side of rigid inflatable boats for hours on end as they journey from France to the UK – with traffickers taking advantage of the recent spell of good weather to send more across the Channel.
A record 88 migrants crammed into a single dinghy over the weekend. The packed vessel was intercepted in the Channel on Sunday and brought to Dover, sources told the Mail.
Meanwhile, figures have emerged showing that French authorities are intercepting fewer Channel migrants than last year despite a £480million funding struck between London and Paris in March.
Statistics compiled by French authorities showed last week just 13,759, or 45.2 per cent, of migrants had been stopped by beach patrols since January – down from the 17,032, or 45.8 per cent, over the same period last year.
News of the latest arrivals – and the blatant video filmed by those crossing – will come as a fresh blow for Rishi Sunak’s pledge to ‘stop the boats’, with the Prime Minister having admitted that this may not be fulfilled before the next election.
The migrants who did arrive on Monday were seen smiling with some making Albania’s controversial eagle hand sign and the ‘V for Victory’ gesture at photographers.
Up to 39 people arrived at Dungeness beach on the Romney Marsh on Monday after being intercepted by the Coastguard as they made their way through thick fog in English Channel.
A man performs the Albanian eagle gesture as he arrives into Rye Harbour on an RNLI Coastguard boat on Monday
A Syrian migrant rescued from a boat crossing the English Channel gestures as he walks to get on the Home Office bus on Dungeness Beach
An immigration official shepherds a young boy and carries a toddler in his arms after they were brought ashore in Kent
A group of people thought to be migrants make their way off an RNLI lifeboat on Dungeness Beach today after being found in the English Channel
Police and immigration officials were seen searching migrants, including children and toddlers wrapped in blankets, after they made landfall – with witnesses saying as many as 600 were picked up from dinghies throughout the day.
Photos show some migrants who arrived appearing to be in a good mood with at least one man putting his hands together to form a double-headed eagle, similar to the one depicted on the Albanian flag.
The controversial nationalist gesture first came to prominence in 2018 when Swiss footballers Granit Xhaka and Xherdan Shaqiri performed it during a match against Serbia, with critics accusing them of inflaming tensions between Serbian nationalist and ethnic Albanians.
In recent years Albanians have made up a growing number of those crossing the English Channel in small boats – in 2022 around 16 per cent of all asylum applicants were Albanian nationals.
It comes after it was revealed more than 25,000 asylum seekers have arrived in Britain in small boats since Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister.
Monday is the sixth consecutive day the migrants have arrived with 1,167 known to have crossed since August 16.
It comes just nine days since six Afghan men drowned after their dinghy capsized off Sangatte on the French coast.
A total of 17,956 people have made the crossing so far this year in 377 boats, according to official government figures. But today arrivals have yet to be confirmed.
August has seen 3,224 migrants intercepted in 60 boats so far. 467 people made the crossing this weekend – 130 were detected on Saturday and 337 on Sunday.
Last year saw a record 45,755 people cross the Channel – compared to 28,526 in 2021.
During a visit to a nursery in North Yorkshire, Mr Sunak said stopping the boats was one of his top five priorities ahead of next year’s likely general election.
It is thought the 25,000 arrivals since Mr Sunak’s premiership started was topped on Friday when the Home Office recorded that 144 people arrived in three boats.
Over the past 12 months, French authorities have been able to stop less than half of those boats seeking to cross the Channel.
A Home Office spokesman said: ‘The unacceptable number of people risking their lives by making these dangerous crossings is placing an unprecedented strain on our asylum system.
‘Our priority is to stop the boats, and our Small Boats Operational Command is working alongside our French partners and other agencies to disrupt the people smugglers.
‘The government is going even further through our Illegal Migration Act which will mean that people arriving in the UK illegally are detained and promptly removed to their country of origin or a safe third country.’
Despite the UK government’s efforts to reduce the numbers of asylum seekers making the perilous journey across the English Channel on small boats, the improving weather conditions are allowing more migrants to attempt the crossing
Migrants rescued from a boat crossing the English Channel are tagged and searched upon arrival at Dungeness Beach
It has been estimated that up to 600 migrants have crossed the Channel in one day
A queue of people wait to board the coach as police check and search the migrants
The Dungeness Lifeboat reportedly brought 39 people ashore on the Romney Marsh
A look at some of the young children who were rescued earlier today at Dungeness
A look at one of the toddlers brought into Dungeness in Kent earlier this morning
Shadow immigration minister Stephen Kinnock said Mr Sunak had ‘fundamentally failed to get a grip’ on the migrant crisis in the English Channel, despite a pledge to put a stop to small boats crossing from France.
‘The Conservatives have allowed criminal smuggling gangs to take hold on Britain’s borders and Tory incompetence is risking our national security, putting lives at risk, and pounding the public purse for millions every day,’ he said.
‘Rishi Sunak has fundamentally failed to get a grip and crossings are rocketing on his watch.
‘It’s time for a different approach. The Prime Minister must now back Labour’s plan to stop the dangerous Channel crossings by going after the criminal gangs, by securing a returns deal with Europe, and by clearing the asylum backlog which is costing the taxpayer £6 million a day.’
Speaking to broadcasters earlier today, the Prime Minister said: ‘One of my five priorities is to stop the boats.
‘The current system is both unsustainable and is completely unfair, but particularly unfair on British taxpayers who are forking out millions of pounds to house illegal migrants in hotels and local communities.
A group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dungeness, Kent
Following a small boat incident in the Channel, an RNLI lifeboat brought in the migrants
‘That’s not right. We’ve got to put a stop to that. And we’re working on it.
‘It’s not an easy problem to fix. I never said we would be able to solve it overnight. It will take time and we have to attack it from lots of different ways. But I am pleased that the number of illegal migrants crossing this year is down for the first time in some years.
‘That shows that our plans are working, but of course there’s still more to do and people should know I am determined to grip this problem, and that’s why one of my five priorities is to stop the boats.’
Pressed again on whether it will be done by the next election, he said: ‘I want it to be done as soon as possible, but I also want to be honest with people that it is a complex problem. There is not one simple solution and it can’t be solved overnight and I wouldn’t be being straight with people if I said that was possible.’
During the same visit, Mr Sunak also defended plans to house migrants on an RAF base in Lincolnshire that has historic links to the Second World War Dambusters raid.
Asked about the risk that moving asylum seekers into RAF Scampton poses to a multimillion-pound investment, he said: ‘Of course the Home Office and other authorities are in dialogue with all local partners to work through all the outstanding issues and questions.’
On why migrants housed in Lincolnshire hotels are not set to be moved to RAF Scampton, with local businesses facing a prolonged squeeze as a result, he added: ‘We are investing in driving growth in the local economy, and at the same time we are taking decisive action to stop the boats.
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