At least 430 migrants made the journey across the English Channel to the UK yesterday, including four Sudanese men who paddled over, in a new single-day record as the overseas crossing becomes the preferred route for people-smugglers due to flat seas and clear weather.
A group of more than 40 people including women and young children were seen walking ashore after one beach landing in Kent, while another 50 migrants arrived elsewhere. Video filmed by shocked beachgoers shows migrants sprinting off in different directions after their vessel managed to arrive at Oldstairs Bay in Kingsdown without being intercepted by Border Force.
The BBC reported that four Sudanese men paddled across the Channel yesterday from either northern France or Belgium as the dangerous 21-mile journey between the Dover Strait and Continental Europe becomes the preferred route for people-smugglers during the summer.
Monday's figure passes the previous daily high of 416 set in September last year, according to official figures. The unprecedented surge in Channel crossings this summer comes despite Home Secretary Priti Patel's bullish vow to make the treacherous journey 'unviable'.
As the number of people crossing in small boats rises, the number coming over to Britain in lorries or train containers through the Channel Tunnel has declined following high-profile incidents in which migrants smuggled onto lorries and containers have died en route.
Furious union officials told MailOnline today that Border Force staff are 'working excessive hours in unsuitable conditions' as officials struggle to keep a handle on the numbers of migrants who are intercepted in the Channel and who need processing on land.
Plans for sweeping reforms of the asylum system, dubbed the anti-refugee Bill by critics and campaigners, were debated again in Parliament yesterday. Theresa May sounded warnings over the prospect of the UK sending asylum seekers to Australia-style offshore processing centres.
The former prime minister said she considered the idea when home secretary but rejected the option due to 'practical concerns'. Her remarks came as MPs considered the Nationality and Borders Bill, which includes clauses to allow the UK to be able to send asylum seekers to a 'safe third country' and to submit claims at a 'designated place' determined by the Secretary of State.
Bella Sankey, director of charity Detention Action, said: 'The Home Office's anti-refugee Bill is political theatre that doesn't even pretend to deal with the issue or make our system, safe, fair or efficient. We need a mechanism allowing refugees arriving at the UK border in France to be given safe passage, and until we have it, all else is noise and distraction.'
Migrants are seen crossing the English Channel this morning as the number of people making the journey to the UK surges
Good Morning Britain filmed a group of migrants making the perilous Channel crossing to the UK this morning
People though to be migrants are watched over by the RNLI as they make their way up the beach following arriving on a small boat at Dungeness in Kent
A man gestures as a group of people thought to be migrants make their way up the beach after arriving on a small boat at Dungeness in Kent
People thought to be migrants make their way up the beach after arriving on a small boat at Dungeness in Kent
People thought to be migrants make their way up the beach after arriving on a small boat at Dungeness in Kent
Footage shows shocked beachgoers watching while the migrants sprint off in different directions after their vessel managed to arrive at Oldstairs Bay in Kingsdown without being intercepted by Border Force
