Migrant crossings: another ship intercepted in the middle of the confinement peak

Another ship carrying migrants was intercepted by the Border Force off the Kent coast after an increase in the number of incidents in recent days.

The Interior Ministry said there were 11 men and six women on board who presented themselves as Iraqi citizens.

More than 280 people have crossed the Canal since Friday, and another 44 people were detained by French officials.

Immigration Compliance Minister Chris Philp said the recent increase in crossings was “totally unacceptable.”

He said it was “disgusting that smugglers are willing to put people’s lives at risk, including children.”

Philp said the government was “stepping up measures to stop the crossings, prosecuting criminals who perpetrated these heinous crimes and prosecuting them for their criminal activity.”

Eight boats with 145 people were detained on Friday, the Interior Ministry confirmed, a record for a single day.

Another 82 were intercepted Saturday.

Those picked up by Border Force officials said they were Iranian, Iraqi, Kuwaiti, Syrian and Afghan citizens.

Friday’s total included 51 people packed aboard a single inflatable boat, the interior ministry said.

Of the 82 people arrested Saturday, 70 were aboard inflatable boats, while 12 men were found in Dungeness on the Kent coast.

The Interior Ministry said that the immigrants had “left a safe country, generally France, and that we will try to return them, if any.”

Home Secretary Priti Patel has acknowledged that a recent increase in the number of migrant boats making the dangerous crossing is related to the Covid-19 blockade.

She has spoken to her French counterpart, Interior Minister Christophe Castaner, who reaffirmed the commitment to make more returns at sea to stop illegal crossings.

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