Number of migrants landing in UK is now more than THREE times total of 2020

The number of migrants that have landed in Britain so far this year is now more than three times the total that arrived by small boat throughout the whole of 2020.

Another 886 asylum seekers arrived on the Kent coast in packed dinghies on Saturday, pushing the total number to beyond 25,700. The tally for the whole of 2020 was just 8,469 migrants. 

The record number of landings intensifies the growing pressure on Home Secretary Priti Patel, who has continuously stressed she will crack down on people smuggling gangs, despite the record number of migrants still rocketing.

A variety of outlandish schemes have been floated by the Home Secretary - including even sending them to a volcanic island - but little has been done beyond words. 

The growing crisis took a surprising turn over the weekend when she said the Home Office was 'not fit for purpose'. That prompted disgruntled staff to brief she was 'a moron' and was 'self-serving' and 'erratic'. 

Pressure too grows on Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has been warned by senior Tories that the worsening crisis could inspire the rise of a UKIP style party, with a particular focus on migrants.

A task force has now been set up by Mr Johnson to draw up new strategies. The group, expected to be chaired by Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Steve Barclay, is said to be considering housing asylum seekers in army barracks rather than hotels - something that already happens.

Other tactics are said to include 'offhshoring' migrants to third countries or cutting the benefits they recieve upon arrival.

This morning business minister Paul Scully complained that agreements with Paris have not been 'effected' as the backlash from Tories gathered pace.

A record 4,000 arrivals have made the perilous crossing this month, including vulnerable children, and relations with France have been increasingly strained.

Despite the UK pledging £50million to bolster patrols and other counter-measures the numbers show little sign of abating.

It has seen the Home Secretary become the target of frustration from her own MPs. 

A task force set up by Boris Johnson to draw up a new strategy is said to be looking at housing asylum seekers in army barracks rather than hotels - something that already happens.

Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Steve Barclay has been told to drive policies across government, and is expected to chair the first meeting of the group early this week.

The initiative will consider the accommodation idea, the possibility of cutting benefits, if return agreements can be strengthened as well as 'offshoring' to third countries while claims are processed, according to the Daily Telegraph. 

Labour has accused Home Secretary Priti Patel of 'comprehensively failing' to stem the flow.

Mr Scully told Sky News: 'We've made an agreement with France which, unfortunately, is not being effected well enough at the moment, and that's what we need to go back and do.'

Mr Scully continued: 'One of the things we've got to do is stop the pull factors, we've got to stop the reason why people are travelling through safe countries, through France, to come to the UK.

'Actually, we've got to make sure they are treated well in France, that in the first place, that they are claiming asylum - that's what the rules are, that's what the laws are.'

He added: 'While they (migrants) can see there is a pathway across the Channel because the border isn't being enforced well enough on the land side, on the French side, and while we're not allowed to treat illegal immigrants differently from legal immigrants, then those pull factors remain - that's what we're tackling and trying to tackle at full speed.'

Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi said it was important to 'kill the business model' to stem the migrant crisis.

Asked what people in Calais should do if they are seeking asylum in the UK, Mr Zahawi told LBC: 'What will happen, hopefully, is you kill the business model. You end the business model. Because, basically, at the moment if they think that once they arrive on these shores the legal system can be used to allow them to stay here, then they will keep doing it.

'If the message gets out, very quickly by the way, and I've already seen it on the issue around … what the Belarussian government were doing to weaponise migration against Poland and other countries.

'Once the message gets out that those people can't get through, then they very quickly stop… doing that.'

In a sign of the difficulty in coping with the numbers of arrivals, Channel migrants are being bussed 500 miles to Scotland for processing after arriving on beaches in Kent as the system struggles under a record number of crossings. 

Dozens have taken the eight-hour journey to Dungavel immigration detention centre in Strathaven, South Lanarkshire in the last few weeks, according to a pressure group. 

Until now, migrants have been processed in Home Office short-term holding facilities an hour or two from Dover.

Dungavel is an immigration removal centre, which is usually used to hold failed asylum seekers prior to deportation. There are eight others in the UK, seven in England and one in Northern Ireland. 

Kate Alexander, director of Scottish Detainee Visitors, told The Guardian: 'When I visited Dungavel on 14 October, I learnt that around 50 people who had crossed the Channel in small boats had been brought there for ''processing''. 

'Staff said this was the second time it had happened in a month, but not before that.' 

The Home Office said: 'The British public have had enough of seeing people die in the Channel while ruthless criminal gangs profit from their misery and our new plan for immigration will fix the broken system which encourages migrants to make this lethal journey. 

'People should claim asylum in the first safe country they reach – rather than making dangerous journeys to the UK.

'That is why we will have rules in place to make asylum claims inadmissible where people have travelled through or have a connection to safe countries.' 

It came as a minister warned French officials were not enforcing their land border 'well enough' to prevent people crossing the Channel.  

French officials are not enforcing their land border 'well enough' to prevent migrants from crossing the Channel, a minister has argued. 

A newborn baby clutching its mother's chest was among 200 migrants who sailed ashore along the Kent coastline yesterday.

Video footage showed the aftermath of three boats landing on the shoreline near Dungeness, with around 65 exhausted people crammed onto each one.

Witnesses described coaches filled mostly with men being led away from the shingle beach by Border Force officials.  

The Home Office still has not released figures for last Tuesday which is expected to be more than 1,000 and a potential record breaker.

Saturday's high tally has only ever been eclipsed when 1,185 migrants arrived in 33 boats on November 11.

The first group of around 30 people were brought in by the RNLI's Dover Lifeboat under the cover of darkness shortly before 4am on Saturday.

Arrivals to Dover Marina, Kent continued around 8am when Border Force cutter Speedwell brought around 20 migrants in with a huge black RHIB in tow.

More than 50 were on board Hunter around an hour later - with dozens more ferried in on board smaller Border Force RHIBs. 

One of Border Force's biggest vessels Valiant was also seen bringing a large group in.

Those on board were mainly men of Middle Eastern appearance wearing thick winter coats, woolly

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