Up to 230 migrants cross Channel TODAY after eleven day hiatus following claims Rwanda is working

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Up to 230 migrants have crossed the English Channel this morning after an eleven day hiatus in what was being claimed as an early victory for the Government’s new scheme for sending asylum seekers to Rwanda.

UK officials, including a Border Force vessel, escorted seven small boats of men, women and children into Dover Harbour, Kent, at around 12.30am.

The last migrants to arrive at Dover in Kent were a total of 263 across seven small boats on April 19 – and Ministry of Justice data revealed not a single adult or child made it across since. 

It comes amid a new strategy to deal with Channel migrants launched on April 14 which saw the military take charge of attempts to control crossings with a joint task force drawn from the Navy, Army and Air Force in Kent. 

This week, Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen said that the drop to zero was evidence that Home Secretary Priti Patel‘s scheme, which will see asylum seekers sent 4,000 miles to claim refugee status from Rwanda, is ‘working already’.

The controversial agreement with the East African nation, which will see it receive asylum seekers deemed by the UK to have arrived ‘illegally’ and therefore inadmissible under new immigration rules, was signed on April 14.

Mr Bridgen, the MP for North West Leicestershire, tweeted: ‘Priti’s migrant policy is working already. No illegal migrant crossing for a week and no income for people traffickers, freeing up civil servants to work on Ukrainian evacuees. We should offer the illegal migrants already here the option of returning to France or going to Rwanda.’

But former Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage told GB News: ‘There are some saying Rwanda is working, it’s a success because virtually no migrants have come now for the last six or seven days. Believe you me, I know this subject.

‘That is nothing to do with the prospect of being shipped off to Rwanda. It’s because there has been a persistent, strong, north-easterly wind in the English Channel. When it gets calm again, the boats will continue to come.’

Up to 300 military servicemen, Navy ships and surveillance drones are being deployed to the Channel after the Armed Forces took control with the Navy assuming Border Force’s responsibility for intercepting migrant boats.

An RAF Wildcat helicopter is now the key military asset in the air and is being used to carry out a final ‘sweep’ of the Channel at the end of each day to ensure all migrants – and their dinghies – have been recovered.

The helicopter is being aided by RAF drones operated out of Lydd Airport in Kent. Soldiers and airmen are also now being based at Dover to help UK Border Force staff with initial processing, and the military are able to issue directions to civilian staff of the UK Border Force, whose ships are remaining part of the Channel taskforce.

Seven ships including HMS Tyne, plus smaller boats and a helicopter are being made available to patrol the sea and coastline, so Border Force staff can be freed up for processing migrants once they arrive on land.

More than 6,500 migrants are thought to have arrived in the UK this year so far after crossing the Channel. In 2021 some 28,526 migrants reached UK shores aboard dinghies and small boats – up from 8,417 in 2020.

The total number of migrants arriving so far this month has been 2,143 across 58 small boats, although the final day of arrivals to the present date was on April 19 when 263 were intercepted across seven small boats.  

In March this year, 3,066 people made the crossing. That was nearly four times the amount recorded for the same month in 2021 (831) and more than 16 times the amount for 2020 (187).

It was also the fourth highest monthly total recorded since the start of 2020, behind July (3,510), September (4,652) and November (6,869) last year.

The figures for April 2022 mean the total number of migrants to arrive so far this year is 6,693 across 204 boats.

Some 1,425 of these had made it across since the Royal Navy took over control of migrant operations in the Channel on April 14.

Earlier this month,  the UK’s former Border Force chief Tony Smith told the Daily Mail that more than 100,000 Channel migrants will reach Britain this year.

Backing the Government’s asylum deal with Rwanda, Mr Smith said: ‘There comes a point where we need to get a grip of our border and stop the boats.

‘The numbers are going up, a fourfold increase already this year – 28,500 last year,’ he added. ‘That’s going to be over 100,000 this year just by migrant boats alone.’

Mr Smith’s prediction would be nearly 12 times the level seen in 2020, 54 times that of 2019 and more than 300 times that in 2018.

In January, it emerged that the Home Office had produced official papers warning that 65,000 migrants could cross this year. 

 

A Government spokesperson said: ‘The rise in dangerous Channel crossings is unacceptable. 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.

‘This week, the Nationality and Borders Act completed its passage through Parliament. 

‘Through this landmark legislation, the Government is 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.’