Dozens of Channel migrants including children arrive in Dover after group were seen scrambling from French beach into dinghies bound for the UK - days after Keir Starmer scrapped Rwanda scheme
Dozens of Channel migrants including children arrived in Dover today after a group were seen scrambling from a French beach into dinghies bound for the UK - just days after Sir Keir Starmer axed the Tories' Rwanda plan.
For the second day in a row, people were brought ashore at the Port of Dover despite persistent wet and windy weather.
Pictures showed youngsters among the group of migrants wearing life jackets, with some wrapped in blankets, as they came into the Kent port on Border Force and RNLI lifeboats.
Earlier, the Daily Mail saw two dinghies making their way to England from a beach near Dunkirk, with migrants onboard one of the boats holding toy rubber tyre rings instead of life jackets.
Adult life jackets have now sold out in the Dunkirk area, so migrants are instead reliant on any kind of inflatable they can purchase in a feeble bid to protect themselves.
People thought to be migrants pictured arriving at Dover in the days after Sir Keir Starmer's landslide election victory
An RNLI Lifeboat and a Border Force vessel pictured off the coast of Dover. For the second day in a row, people were brought ashore today at the port despite inclement weather
Sir Keir pictured outside No10 after a cabinet meeting on July 9. He scrapped the Rwanda plan shortly after becoming Prime Minister
The first migrants to cross the Channel since Labour's election victory arrived after crossings resumed on Monday for the first time in six days amid poor weather conditions at sea
Seventeen packets of the toy beach inflatables were left on the sand behind them.
And exasperated police, who raced to the scene too late with the aid of a couple of beach buggies, said they had earlier in the morning thwarted another two raids.
Earlier in the hours of darkness they had seized two uninflated giant dinghies and outboard motors from the car of a trio of suspected people smugglers in the town of Gravelines.
An officer told us: 'We catch some - but we can't catch them all. While my colleagues were arresting some of the ''ferrymen'' in town, then slashing their boats, scores more migrants were hiding in the dunes waiting for dinghies to arrive from the sea to pick them up.
'The migrants are so poised to come to England they have even set up a new camp for around a hundred of them right near the beach, so they are ready to board arriving ''taxi boats'' at any time.
'And these toy rubber rings they are using, they are designed to be played with on holiday, not used for safety on the high seas.
'The shops have sold out of adult life jackets, so they buy kids' stuff instead, hoping it is better than nothing.'
He added that a dozen migrants had turned back from the boat we had just seen set off because it was too full.
'With forty on board these dinghies it is dangerous enough,' said the officer. 'With fifty or sixty, it is a death trap - particularly if all you have is a children's rubber ring.'
Astonishingly there were several dozen more migrants lurking in the dunes at the same time as the boat we photographed launched.
Police said they were hoping a further boat would come from them, but retreated when police arrived.
As we spoke yet another dinghy launched further east was also out to sea heading to Britain.
Our police source sighed as he said: 'The migrants land on Lampedusa, the Italian island near Africa, get an Italian police stamp in their passports – and two days later they are here in northern France, waiting to go to England.
'Under European freedom of movement laws, there is no way of stopping them.'
Migrants began crossing the Channel in earnest again today after a six-day pause for weather using children's toy rubber rings instead of life jackets
Adult life jackets have now sold out in the Dunkirk area - so migrants are instead reliant on any kind of inflatable they can purchase in a feeble bid to protect themselves
French police pick through discarded packaging and debris left behind by migrants
It comes as as three asylum seekers who brought legal action over their potential removals to Rwanda had their cases resolved at the High Court today after the new Labour Government decided to scrap the deportation policy.
More than 13,600 migrants have arrived in the UK so far this year after crossing the Channel.
This is nine per cent more than the number recorded by the same time last year (12,503) and up four per cent on the same period in 2022 (13,172), according to government data.
Today's figures will be confirmed when the Home Office publishes the next set of data tomorrow.
It comes after 65 people made the journey in one boat yesterday after a six-day pause in activity - the first crossings since Labour's election victory.
This took the total to 13,639 for 2024 so far, which has already seen a record number for the first six months of a calendar year.
Pictures showed groups of people arriving from France wearing life jackets, and some wrapped in blankets, being escorted off a Border Force boat in Dover, Kent, with children among those seen being carried ashore.
Crossings resumed on the same day Home Secretary Yvette Cooper launched a Border Security Command designed to crack down on the gangs orchestrating the crossings.
Ms Cooper branded the Rwanda migrant deportation scheme a 'complete con' yesterday as she hinted Labour would try to recoup some of the £290million spent before it was axed.
A heavily overloaded dinghy is seen setting sail off the French coast
Migrants camping in the sand dunes are seen running down to the beach to embark on the treacherous journey
Ms Cooper said she planned to audit the programme to send Channel boat arrivals to east Africa, which was axed by Sir Keir Starmer in one of his first decisions after entering No10.
But almost a third of a billion pounds has already been given to the Kagame government, despite the only migrants to leave Britain being four volunteers.
Questions will be raised over how much can be recouped. But Ms Cooper told LBC radio: 'We are auditing the whole scheme… It has clearly been a complete con.'
Ms Cooper said setting up the Border Security Command unit was Labour's first priority on migration as she faced questions on the future of the Bibby Stockholm barge, which is being used to house asylum seekers in Portland, Dorset.
The new Home Secretary Yvette Cooper pictured at Lewisham Police Station in south London on Monday. She said she planned to audit the programme to send boat arrivals to east Africa
The Home Office will confirm how many people made the journey on Monday, the first under the new Labour administration, in data published on Tuesday (pictured: A group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent on Monday)
She did not confirm whether the Government would abandon use of the barge but told reporters: 'We need to clear the Conservatives' asylum backlog, but the first priority has to be to get the stronger border security in place, and that is why our first step is setting up the new border security command.'
Over the weekend Sir Keir Starmer said the stalled multi-million pound plan to send migrants to Rwanda is 'dead and buried' as he confirmed the deportation policy is to be scrapped.
The Prime Minister said he was 'not prepared to continue with gimmicks' as Labour announced plans to free the last two migrants who were detained ahead of anticipated flights.
Asked if she has had any contact with Rwanda about winding the plan down and getting any money back, Ms Cooper said: 'Well, the Prime Minister has obviously set out the position on the Rwanda scheme where as we know, the Conservatives ran this scheme for two and a half years, and sent simply four volunteers as well as hundreds of millions of pounds.'
She said her 'key priority' as incoming Home Secretary is to 'strengthen Britain's border security, where I think we have been let down for too long'.
