A record number of migrant boats were spotted off the coast of Kent, England near Winchelsea beach by Border Force officials on the morning of June 1
More than 30 migrants were picked up and the UK Coast Guard has confirmed that it responded to at least 13 migrant boats earlier in the day. The Conservative MP for Dover and Deal, Charlie Elphicke, noted that the latest arrivals amount to a record number of boats arriving in British waters in a single day.
It is thought that unusually calm seas and record high temperatures are likely to have encouraged the influx.
The response to the arrivals has included border force vessels, RNLI lifeboats from Dover, Dungeness and Rye and coastguard rescue teams from Folkestone, Langdon and Rye Bay, with support from the Kent police force, however despite the increase in the number of patrols, one of the boats with eight migrants on board managed to land without being intercepted.
According to the Home Office, the latest raft of boats were carrying at least 74 men, women and children all of whom have been offered blankets, bottles of water and medical assistance. One migrant was taken to hospital having been found to be suffering from hypothermia. Their nationalities are now being determined.
140 migrants arrived in the month of May via the English Channel more than arrived in December 2018 when the Home Secretary Sajid Javid declared a “major incident” and ordered two Border Force boats to be deployed to assist. Elphicke has asked the Home Office to curtail the mounting numbers and to bring the crisis to an end noting that in addition to the danger of making the crossing on overcrowded and unseaworthy boats, much of the activity is a cover for the exploitation of vulnerable people by criminal trafficking gangs.
The Home Secretary has once again called on migrants and asylum seekers to claim asylum in the first safe country they reach since the UK will return anyone who has entered the country illegally. A spokesman for the Home Office confirmed that Border Force is dealing with ongoing small boat incidents off the Kent coast, and that further details would be provided only once the situation had been resolved.
