More than 10,000 migrants are believed to have crossed the Channel to Britain in small boats this year after a further 300 arrived yesterday.
The Home Office did not confirm how many landed yesterday, but at least 269 migrants were counted being processed at Dover marina after being intercepted at sea. Sources told The Times the total figure was at least 300.
Priti Patel, the home secretary, met members of the Greek government yesterday as she tries to reduce illegal Channel crossings.
The total number of migrants who have made the journey this year is already 1,600 more than crossed in the whole of 2020.
It is thought that warmer weather and calm seas later this month will lead to a surge in migrants landing in Kent, with the daily record of arrivals — currently 430 — expected to be broken. The Times revealed last month that Border Force believes 22,000 will have arrived by the end of this year — almost triple the 8,420 recorded last year.
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It was reported last night that some security guards supervising migrants housed in hotels have not been able to enforce quarantine rules because they do not know who is meant to be isolating. The Home Office has had to block- book hotels to accommodate the surge of arrivals. Those people staying there are meant to isolate for 10 days.
But some migrants told The Daily Telegraph they had been allowed to leave their hotels — one staying in Kensington, west London, said he had been permitted to go shopping. Another, at a hotel in Peckham, south London, also said he was allowed to go shopping during his quarantine.
A Home Office spokeswoman said: “Newly arrived migrants at hotels are treated as they would be at other facilities, and are expected to comply with Covid regulations including a 10-day self-isolation period. There is 24/7 security at all hotels.”
Yesterday Patel visited an asylum-processing centre on the Greek island of Samos and joined a patrol of the Hellenic coastguard, where she was shown how Greece directs small boats in the Aegean Sea back towards Turkey.
She is seeking a similar arrangement with France to the one Greece has with Turkey. The Greeks deploy hundreds of boats — paid for by the EU — on their sea border. Patel was told that Greek patrols alert the Turkish coastguard when migrant boats are spotted approaching and they are picked up before they are able to reach Greece.
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The arrangement has slashed the number of migrants crossing the Aegean Sea.
Those who do reach Greece are shipped to a new asylum reception centre on Samos. Patel was shown around the island by Notis Mitarachi, Greece’s migration minister. He tweeted a photo of the pair looking over the camp, which he described as “structures which will provide decent living conditions, as well as foster a sense of security among local communities”.
Patel said she wanted to copy the asylum centre, which will open in September, as part of her reforms of the asylum system. She said her Nationality and Borders Bill would create similar purpose-built reception centres to streamline asylum applications. By handling all claims and appeals on site, the new reception centres will speed up claims, which often take more than a year.
The reforms will bring in powers for ministers to open offshore centres to process migrants who arrive in the UK illegally. The proposal could see asylum seekers shipped to third countries or British islands as part of efforts to deter them from travelling to the mainland.
After completing her two-day trip to Greece, Patel vowed to step up efforts to combat illegal Channel crossings. She said: “We have seen a surge in illegal migration across Europe, and we must continue to work closely with our Greek partners to tackle this challenge that both our countries face.”
