Migrants risk choppy seas to cross Channel with more expected to arrive this week

Migrants risk choppy seas to cross Channel with more expected to arrive this week
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Jamie  Micklethwaite

By Jamie Micklethwaite


Published: 28/06/2022

- 13:36

Updated: 14/02/2023

- 10:55

153 migrants on four boats were intercepted on Monday, with more expected to arrive this week

More people have risked choppy seas in the English Channel to reach the UK by small boats.

A total of 153 migrants on four boats were intercepted by the UK authorities on Monday June 27, according to figures released by the MoD.


And more boats are expected to arrive on Tuesday despite strong winds in the region.

The recent crossings bring the total of people reaching the UK so far this year to 12,312 compared to 5,654 by this point in 2021 and 2,449 in 2020.

EDITORS NOTE: Children's faces have been pixelated as the PA Picture Desk has been unable to gain the necessary permission to photograph a child under 16 on issues involving their welfare. A man carries a distressed young child amongst a group of people thought to be migrants as they are brought in to Dover, Kent, following a small boat incident in the Channel. Picture date: Tuesday June 28, 2022.
A man carries a child off the boat at Dover
Gareth Fuller

At the weekend, Prime Minister Boris Johnson declined to give a figure by which Channel crossings needed to come down before the Government’s Rwanda migrant policy could be declared a success.

The first flight to Rwanda, planned for June 14, was cancelled at the last minute following an order from the European Court of Human Rights.

Home Secretary Priti Patel has previously described the court’s decision as politically motivated while Justice Secretary Dominic Raab said it was wrong for the injunction to be granted.

Ongoing court battles have created uncertainty over when any further attempts to fly asylum seekers to the African country will be made, although Ms Patel has said the Government “will not be deterred from doing the right thing, we will not be put off by the inevitable last-minute legal challenges”.

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