Migrant crisis: More than 20,000 people illegally crossed English Channel this year

It follows a busy day on Tuesday, as official figures show that 526 people arrived illegally in UK waters in eight dinghies.

This morning, the first small boat was intercepted by a Border Force vessel in the early hours, and around 50 people were taken to the migrant processing centre at Dover Harbour.

By mid-morning, several hundred migrants were in the middle of the Channel, heading for the UK.

The Border Force vessel Defender was first into Dover with 95 people onboard.

GB News Kent producer estimated up to 11 small boats were in the Channel on Wednesday and heading for UK waters.

If all make it, it could mean more than 650 migrants will have arrived in the UK in a single day, the highest one-day total since Labour came to power.

That figure also takes the total number who have crossed illegally so far this year to almost 20,500.

That number is more than two-thirds of the way to the total for the whole of last year.

Maritime security sources have told GB News that the UK was on target to significantly outstrip the 29,000 people who arrived by small boat in 2023.

One source said: "There's no doubt at all that the UK will see significantly more Channel migrants arriving by the end of this year, compared to last year.

"Fortunately for the Government, we've had a week of stormy weather in the Channel, which has prevented small boat crossings, or we'd have been at 20,000 a week ago.

"And we're currently in the busiest part of the year, where mostly flat-calm conditions allow for hundreds to cross every day."

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A Home Office spokesman said: "We all want to see an end to dangerous small boat crossings, which are undermining border security and putting lives at risk.

"The new Government is taking steps to boost our border security, setting up a new Border Security Command which will bring together our intelligence and enforcement agencies, equipped with new counter-terror-style powers and hundreds of personnel stationed in the UK and overseas, to smash the criminal smuggling gangs making millions in profit."

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has vowed to go after the people smugglers and "smash the gangs".

Labour last week announced an additional 100 investigators were being recruited by the National Crime Agency to pursue the organised crime groups responsible for the multi-million pounds illegal trade.

On his first day in office, the new Prime Minister scrapped the previous Government's deterrent scheme to send small boat migrants to Rwanda for processing.

Speaking in Berlin this morning, Sir Keir doubled down on his decision to dump the scheme.

He told a news conference: "I have long said, before the election, that I thought the Rwanda scheme was a gimmick, which is why we stood it down immediately.

"But nonetheless, it is vitally important that we take back control of our borders.

"I have long been convinced that the most effective way to do that is to take down the gangs that are running the vile trade of putting people in dangerous situations across Europe and across the Channel.

"And I said before the election that I would invest political capital in making sure that we could work more effectively with our partners in taking down those gangs.

"And that's why I'm very pleased today that we've had a substantive discussion, agreed to a joint action plan, and that will, as you would expect, deal with issues like data sharing, intelligence sharing, what we can do on joint operations.

"Because that is the way to take effective action in relation to the vile trade that sits beneath irregular migration across Europe, and in particular, sits beneath the vile trade of putting people into small boats across the Channel."