Young children have been found in the latest group of migrants crossing the English Channel on small boats.
A group of roughly 50 people were led ashore from the first boat that docked, while other Border Force vessels remained in the Channel.
It means the total number of people who have arrived in the UK this week is now close to 400 after 342 were recorded in seven boats up to Saturday, Home Office figures show.
It comes after it was revealed that nearly 1,500 migrants arrived in the UK on 27 boats last week, taking the total number of people making the treacherous journey across the English Channel this year to 15,831.
Some 1,499 people made the journey from July 15 to 21, while the French coastguard confirmed two people died amid rescue operations off the northern French coast.
A group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, on a Border Force vessel
Young children were found in the lastest group of around 50 people who arrived on a small boat
Today’s small boat arrival indicates how the number of attempted crossings tends to rise when weather conditions are favourable.
The Labour Government has vowed to tackle small boat arrivals by targeting the people-smuggling gangs behind the crossings.
It has said a Border Command Unit will be established, in co-operation with European partners.
Speaking on July 18, Mr Starmer reacted to the deaths of five people in two incidents in the Channel, saying it was ‘a chilling reminder of the human cost of this vile trade.’
A Home Office spokesperson 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.’
British Border Vessels intercepted hundreds of migrants crossing the Channel last Saturday morning, including one group in a suspected stolen yacht
Life vests used by people thought to be migrants, are cleared away in Dover, Kent
Earlier this week, it was also revealed that an Albanian teenager who came to the UK on a small boat has been jailed for six months after he was caught helping run a cannabis factory.
Oltion Stafasani, 19, did not pay smugglers to bring him into the country but may have helped repay the debt by overseeing the illegal weed crop at a property in southeast London.
Police were called by a council plumber who raised the alarm over a serious water leak at the flat in Abbey Wood, on June 1, Woolwich Crown Court heard.
Officers used a crowbar to force entry into a secret area of the property containing several rooms completely filled with ‘healthy and vigorous’ cannabis plants.
At least 48 ‘metre high’ cannabis plants were discovered, as well as 14 clear plastic bags full of material alleged by the prosecution to be herbal cannabis.
