Video footage shows the moment a man handed a child to authorities before scrambling aboard a dinghy in France, as almost 800 migrants crossed the Channel to Britain in a single day.
The distressing and chaotic scenes, filmed near a French beach, appear to show the man holding a baby before passing the child to officials and climbing onto a waiting migrant boat.
The Home Office said 781 migrants arrived in Britain on Wednesday, surpassing the previous high for the year of 752, recorded on July 29.
The latest arrivals take the total number of people reaching the UK across the Channel during the first three days of this week to 1,085.
The figures are an embarrassment for Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, who said just three weeks ago that Labour’s measures to tackle small boat crossings were beginning to work.
On September 2, she said: “We are boosting officer numbers to record highs to crack down on small boat launches and the gangs behind them. This work is bearing fruit.”
Wednesday’s total was more than five times the average number recorded on a “red day” during the first eight months of the year. Red days are periods when weather conditions and other factors make Channel crossings more likely.
Just two weeks ago, the Home Office highlighted a decline in crossings on red days. Its figures showed that the average number of arrivals on those days had fallen “significantly” to 144 a day between January 1 and the end of August.
Despite the latest surge, the Government insisted that its record in tackling the Channel crisis remained “indisputable”.
A spokesman said: “Our progress this year in tackling small boats is indisputable – with crossings down by 42 per cent and the lowest recorded over the summer months since 2020.
“But this week’s events show that while the peaks we are seeing are far below those of previous years, we need to push further and harder in order to eradicate this vile trade.”
Ten small boats reached British waters on Wednesday. The vessels were intercepted around the midpoint of the Channel, then escorted to Dover by UK Border Force.
The sharp rise in crossings could suggest that people-smuggling gangs are once again able to secure dinghies and other equipment, including outboard motors, after a law-enforcement operation disrupted their supply routes.
The week has also seen two “uncontrolled landings”, in which migrant boats reached the UK without being intercepted by authorities.
During a chaotic 48-hour period in the Channel, as many as 30 migrants arrived by dinghy on a Kent beach on Tuesday before police reached the area.
Video footage shows the moment a man handed a child to authorities before scrambling aboard a dinghy in France
The distressing and chaotic scenes were filmed near a beach in France
Migrants attempt to board a smuggler’s boat from the beach at Equihen-Plage in northern France on Wednesday
Officials said 21 people were detained and taken to a Home Office facility, where they will be processed before lodging asylum claims in Britain.
The incident came a day after as many as seven migrants reached another location in Kent without being intercepted.
And in further chaotic scenes a dinghy launched from near Bayeux, in Normandy, made a record 38-hour voyage.
They launched just before 10am on Monday and, on Tuesday afternoon were picked up by RNLI lifeboats and later transferred to a Border Force cutter.
The 51 migrants aboard were eventually brought ashore to Dover in the early hours of Wednesday.
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Labour scrapped the Conservatives’ Rwanda asylum deal as one of its first acts in office in 2024.
Instead, the Government has insisted it can tackle the Channel crisis by increasing law enforcement activities both here and on the Continent.
Ms Mahmood signed a new £662million, three-year deal with the French government in April which was designed to improve French beach patrols and prevent crossings.
But critics have said the deal does not provide the British taxpayer with value for money and French gendarmes have been seen failing to intervene as dinghies launch towards Britain.
Wednesday’s 781 arrivals was the highest daily total since December 20, when 803 reached the UK.
The all-time record arrivals day was 1,305 on September 3, 2022.
