Migrants brave choppy Channel in latest small boat crossings into Dover

A group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, from a Border Force vessel following a small boat incident in the Channel Credit: PA Wire/PA Images

Men, women and children have been brought ashore by Border Force in the first migrant crossings of the English Channel in a week.

At least four boats are understood to have been intercepted as they made the crossing from France in choppy conditions.

The migrants wore life vests and were wrapped in blankets as they came off the patrol boat at Dover, Kent, to be processed by the Home Office.

A group of people thought to be migrants are brought into Dover, Kent, from a Border Force vessel. Credit: Gareth Fuller/PA

The boats arriving are the first since October 16 when 185 people were brought ashore from six small boats.

The latest arrivals come as a total of 26,116 have been brought ashore since the start of 2023, which compares with 37,575 by this point last year.

The boats arriving were the first since October 16 Credit: Gareth Fuller/PA

The crossings come after the Home Office announced on Friday that an annual cap on the number of refugees accepted in the UK would be launched in January 2025.

Local authorities are being invited to set out their “capacity” to accommodate people coming to Britain via safe and legal routes in order to determine the limit, the department said.

Plans for a cap were introduced in the Government’s flagship Illegal Migration Bill, which became law earlier this year, but until Friday a date for its launch had not been fixed.

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