More than 180 migrants crossed the Channel to reach the UK yesterday

Nearly 200 migrants made it to the UK on small boats yesterday, official government figures reveal. More than 180 made the dangerous trip across the English Channel despite freezing temperatures.

It brings this month’s total to 1,302, over five times the 223 who made the crossing last January. The first vessel yesterday was shortly after 8am, carrying about ten people, with a dozen more escorted to safety at 10am.

Border Force’s Vigilant followed shortly after, bringing around 15 more people into the Port of Dover just before noon. A further four groups of migrants were escorted to the Tug Haven immigration centre throughout the day.

This brought the total number of arrivals to 183 migrants across seven boats on Tuesday according to the Home Office – the third highest figure this month.

It comes as a former patrol boat commander warned there is ‘no spare capacity’ of navy vessels to tackle the number of migrant crossings in the Channel.

Tom Sharpe told MPs the solution to curbing the crisis was ‘not at sea’ after the PM signed off plans for the military to take over command of the operation from Border Force.

More than 180 made the dangerous trip across the English Channel despite freezing temperatures yesterday (pictured)

It brings the total this month to 1,302, over five times the 223 who made the crossing in January 2021. Pictured: Yesterday

The first vessel yesterday arrived shortly after 8am, carrying approximately ten people, with a dozen more escorted to safety at 10am (pictured)

People could be seen wrapped in blankets amid freezing conditions in the Channel, but gave thumbs up to onlookers and the V for victory sign.

French authorities intercepted 100 people from the perilous crossing and a coastguard fixed-wing plane and drone were also searching for small boats.

Numbers are expected to dwindle today as the weather is set to take a turn for the worse.

Minister for Justice and Tackling Illegal Migration Tom Pursglove said: ‘People fleeing persecution should seek safety in the first safe country they reach and not risk their lives paying criminal gangs to cross the Channel.

‘This Government is reforming our approach to illegal entry to the UK and asylum by making the tough decisions to end the overt exploitation of our laws and its impact on UK taxpayers.

‘The public have rightly had enough of the blatant disregard of our immigration laws and we are bringing in necessary long-term*changes.

‘The Nationality and Borders Bill will make it a criminal offence to knowingly arrive in the UK illegally and introduce life sentences for those who facilitate illegal entry into the country.

‘It will also strengthen the powers of Border Force to stop and redirect vessels, while introducing new powers to remove asylum seekers to have their claims processed outside the UK.’

Border Force cutter Vigilant followed shortly after, bringing around 15 more people into the Port of Dover just before noon. Pictured: Yesterday

A further four groups of migrants were escorted to the Tug Haven immigration centre throughout the day. Pictured: Yesterday

This brought the total number of arrivals to 183 migrants across seven boats on Tuesday according to the Home Office – the third highest figure this month. Pictured: The Army at Tug Haven in Dover yesterday

Official figures show more than three times as many migrants have arrived in Britain so far this month than in the whole of January last year. UK authorities have intercepted more than 950 migrants so far this year – more than three times the 223 in January 2021. Last year, 28,381 people were intercepted in the Channel, compared to just 8,410 in 2020

What happens when someone arrives in the UK after crossing the Channel?

By Rory Tingle

The vast majority of people crossing the Channel in small boats claim asylum, according to the Refugee Council. At this point the process for what happens varies depending on whether they are an adult, unaccompanied minor or a family unit.

ADULT

1 – Immediately transferred to a short-term holding facility dotted around the country, generally in southern England. Fingerprints are taken and they have a screening interview where they provide their name, date of birth and nationality. This registers them into the asylum system.

2 – One or two days later the asylum seekers would usually be sent to a hostel run by the Home Office, but in the last few years these have become full so officials are using hotels.

3 – Two to three weeks later they are dispersed to a town or city anywhere in the UK into ‘housing in the community’ – although these time scales have stretched recent years. In addition, dispersal accommodation has often been full so the Home Office has relied on rented accomodation from three private providers. The asylum seekers receive housing and £39.63 a week as a cash allowance.

4 – The asylum seekers are issued with a form called a preliminary information questionnaire (PIC) where they are asked why they have a fear of persecution. At some point they are invited to the Home Office for substantive interview where they will be asked questions based on information from their screening interview and PIC form.

4 – If the initial decision is a refusal, the applicant can appeal to an independent tribunal. Their accommodation and support would continue.

5 – If they get an initial refusal and they don’t appeal or their appeal is refused they become what’s known in official jargon as ‘appeal rights exhausted’. The Home Office will send them a letter saying they will be evicted and the weekly support will stop.

6 – They have the option of signing up to the Voluntary Return Scheme, under which the Home Office will pay for their flights. If they don’t sign up they are liable to being picked up and detained by immigration officers and perhaps forcibly removed. But they are not enough detention spaces for people in that situation so they often become homeless and destitute, the Refugee Council said.

CHILD

Children (under 18) are sent to a short term holding facility for a much shorter amount of time and then transferred into the care of a local authority. They are allocated a social worker and accomodation.

The Home Office cannot remove minors if they have been separated from their parents. However, if their asylum claim is unsuccessful they could be given a form of leave to remain until they are 17 and a half.

FAMILY

The only slight difference is that if a family become an ‘appeal rights exhausted’ case the Home Office wouldn’t evict them from the accommodation or stop their financial support.

Home Secretary Priti Patel told the Commons last week she had ‘commissioned the MoD as a crucial operational partner to protect our Channel against illegal migration’.

Speaking to the Commons Defence Committee on Wednesday, ex-navy commander Mr Sharpe said: ‘We have to acknowledge right at the start, in terms of context, about where the solution to this lies, and it’s not at sea.’

Asked what resources the Navy has that could tackle migrant crossings, he said: ‘If you fill the Channel with ships you could make this problem worse because you’re now making the crossing safer, and therefore more attractive.

‘In terms of what the navy’s got right now, as I say they could use anything, but there is no fat, there is no spare capacity.

‘The person in the planning board… is going to be hoping desperately that naval vessels aren’t requisitioned for this task because they’re all in use on other things.’

Vice Admiral Sir Charles Montgomery, a former Second Sea Lord and director general of Border Force between 2013 to 2017, said the navy had a ‘far greater range’ of its own assets and ‘wider defence assets’ to call on which will be ‘very useful’, but added those resources ‘could have been available to Border Force if it was leading the operation’.

‘Clearly a judgment has been made that this is … about the leadership of the operation. And the Government have reached a judgment that the navy will be in a better place to lead this operation, better than Border Force or indeed any of the other operational arms that the Home Office has to call on,’ he said.

The plans were called into question by some critics after little information was provided on how it would work and questions for more detail went unanswered.

John Spellar, acting committee chairman for the session, said it was ‘unfortunate that the Ministry of Defence has declined to provide either a minister or an official or a senior navy officer’ to answer questions on what has been named Operation Isotrope.

The plans have been ‘in train’ for some time, Mr Sharpe said, but suggested the decision to put the navy in charge was a bigger role than previously anticipated.

He told MPs he thought the navy could offer the operation four things ‘really, very well’: command and control to co-ordinate the large number of organisations involved; intelligence to ‘better predict’ when crossings are likely to happen; maritime surveillance which he described as ‘navy 101’; and ‘allocating resources efficiently’.

He suggested there was technology available that could ‘saturate’ the Channel with better surveillance, describing nodes that have radar, thermal imaging and optical cameras and intercept cell phone use which could cost about £3 million to buy 10 to cover the stretch of water.

With that in place ‘you’re not playing ‘whac-a-mole’ any more, to use that expression, which is what I think is happening now’, he said, suggesting using such technology could help with ‘efficiently allocating resources’ if crossings were under way.

But when asked what navy vessels would actually be able to do when faced with intercepting a boat, and whether turning boats back towards France would be possible, he said: ‘I would be happy if the expression of pushback was never used again.

‘I cannot conceive a situation where you’re physically turning these ships back that’s either legal, or perhaps more importantly, safe.’

The potential ‘reputational damage’ to the Royal Navy ‘needs to be considered’, he said, adding: ‘In terms of avoiding becoming a taxi service, this is why I think this isn’t about just throwing more ships into the mix. It’s about throwing the right number suitably…’

When it was suggested to him the plan could run the risk of encouraging more people to make the crossing if it fails, he said: ‘I agree… I think there’s a real danger of that.’