Channel migrant crossings hit highest daily total this year as 696 make treacherous journey

Crossings come more than three months after UK government announced Rwanda deporations in bid to deter journeys

(PA)

Nearly 700 migrants crossed the Channel on Monday, the highest number in one day this year.

The Ministry of Defence said some 696 people were detected making the the treacherous journey from France to England in small boats on Monday.

Photos from the Kent port town of Ramsgate showed large groups of migrants, young children and women among them, being brought to the shore by UK Border Force.

Some people were then seen boarding blue buses.

A woman and child board a bus after beigh brought to the shore in Ramsgate (PA)

According to official government figures, more than 17,000 migrants have arrived in the UK after crossing the Channel dinghies in 2022.

Monday’s crossings came more than three months after home secretary Priti Patel unveiled plans to send migrants to Rwanda to try to deter people from crossings the Channel

Ms Patel signed what she described as a “world-first” agreement with Rwanda under which the east African nation will receive migrants deemed by the UK to have arrived “illegally” and are therefore inadmissible under new immigration rules.

But the first deportation flight, due to take off on June 14, was grounded amid legal challenges.

Several asylum seekers, the Public and Commercial Services union and charities Care4Calais, Detention Action and Asylum Aid are challenging the legality of the Home Office policy, with the next court hearings due in September and October.

Monday's figure was the highest number on a single day so far this year, and only the second time in 2022 the daily figure has topped 600.

The previous highest number was 651, on 13 April.

At the equivalent point in 2021, the cumulative total was just under 9,500.

Some 14 boats were detected on Monday, which suggests an average of around 50 people crossed the Channel per boat.

Last week a report claimed that French and British coastguards failed to stop the worst migrant drowning in the Channel because they passed the responsibility to help onto each other.

The rubber dinghy was carrying at least 30 people and sank on 24 November last year despite repeated calls from those on board to both the emergency services.

At least 27 people - including a newborn baby - died in the tragedy, which was the worst migrant drowning ever recorded in the Channel.

An investigation, carried out by a law firm acting for some of the relative’s and seen by Sky News, recovered communications between the British and French coastguards, as well as phone calls, text messages and emails relating to the tragedy.

According to the report, people onboard the dinghy first called both emergency services at around 2am and then continued for almost two hours in an effort to get help.