New record as 430 migrants cross English Channel in a single day

On July 19, Monday, more than 430 migrants crossed the English Channel and arrived in the United Kingdom. This has set a new record for a single day. Throughout the day, dozens of men, women, and children crossed the sea in small boats, including about 50 people who arrived in a dinghy on a beach in Dungeness, Kent.

Around 8,000 migrants have arrived in the UK this year

The previous high-water mark for arrivals was of 416 in September of 2002. Approximately 8,000 migrants have arrived in the UK via 345 boats in 2021. The Home Office has promised to crackdown on illegal immigration across the English Channel, and Home Secretary Priti Patel has tabled legislation in parliament that would criminalise unauthorised entry into the UK and allow border officers to send asylum applicants to a "safe third country."

The majority of persons crossing the Channel do it in small boats that aren't designed for long voyages at sea. The dinghy that landed at Dungeness is thought to have departed northern France or Belgium early Monday morning. This was before crossing the treacherous Dover Strait, which is 21 miles long. A lifeboat followed it into Dungeness, where it watched the migrants clamber out onto the sand around 1 pm as they stood on the beach, some lifted their hands in joy, while others sat on the shingle seashore in the 24-degree heat.

MPs are debating the new Nationality and Borders Bill

Dan O'Mahoney, a Home Office official in charge of suppressing Channel crossings said that there is an intolerable upsurge in risky small boat crossings over the channel because of a surge in unlawful migration across Europe. He continued by saying that people should seek asylum in the first secure country they come across rather than risking their lives on these perilous journeys. The perpetrators responsible for these unlawful crossings are still being pursued. MPs are presently debating a new Nationality and Borders Bill, which he claims will protect lives and halt the loop of illegal crossings. The proposed rule would not only make it unlawful to enter the UK illegally, even to seek asylum, but it would also give the UK Border Force the authority to stop boats in the Channel and return them to France forcibly.

(With inputs from AP)