Border Force have recovered a Kayak from the English Channel today, after migrants used it to cross the dangerous shipping lane into UK waters.
It comes as up to 450 other migrants made the illegal journey from France in small boats on Tuesday - just a day after 473 people made the crossing in eight small boats.
The Kayak and its occupants were picked up by a Border Force vessel and landed back in Dover harbour this morning.
UK and French authorities are dealing with a fresh surge in Channel migrant crossings today, with the good weather expected to last until at Wednesday.
Border Force have recovered a Kayak from the English Channel today, after migrants used it to cross the dangerous shipping lane into UK waters
GB News
By the end of today, it's expected that the number of migrants who have arrived by small boat since Sunday will have risen to 1,200.
Just a day after the total number of migrants had passed 10,000 since the beginning of the year, that figure has already risen to 10,600.
GB News sources say the total is likely to top 11,000 by the end of tomorrow, with more good weather and only light winds expected.
Speaking this morning, the Home Secretary has said that gangs have been “taking advantage of the much higher number of calm weather days”.
Asked whether she thought she was doing a good job of stopping crossings, Yvette Cooper told Times Radio: “The boats are high and this is undermining border security, it’s putting lives at risk.
“It’s why it’s so essential to take action on the criminal gangs that are underpinning this vile trade in people.”
“They have been taking advantage of the much higher number of calm weather days,” she said.
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Cooper later said the situation “cannot continue” where “the impact on our border security of the weather is so significant”.
The number of migrants crossing the English Channel is now 41 per cent higher than the total number of migrants who had crossed at this point last year.
Speaking to GB News, Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp claimed 2025 had been "the worst year in history for illegal immigrants crossing the English Channel".
He said Labour had been wrong to scrap the Rwanda scheme and said that without that deterrent, "the numbers are worse than ever".
The Kayak and its occupants were picked up by a Border Force vessel and landed back in Dover harbour this morning
GB News
A Home Office spokesman said: “We all want to end dangerous small boat crossings, which threaten lives and undermine our border security.
“The people-smuggling gangs do not care if the vulnerable people they exploit live or die, as long as they pay and we will stop at nothing to dismantle their business models and bring them to justice.
“That’s why this Government is investing in border security, increasing returns to their highest levels for more than half a decade, and imposing a major crackdown on illegal working to end the false promise of jobs used by gangs to sell spaces on boats.
"We have already secured agreement from the French to deploy a new elite unit of officers at the coast, launch a specialist intelligence unit, increase police numbers and introduce new powers for the French authorities to intervene in shallow waters."
