Grinning migrant carries small child down gangplank as another boatload arrive in Dover after asylum claims rocketed to 20-year high
- The man carries the child, wearing no shoes, from a Border Force boat on Friday
- More than 19,000 people have crossed the Channel this year to date
- READ MORE: Asylum seekers are ‘resisting rescue’ from French Coastguard
A grinning migrant carries a small child down the gangplank of a Border Force boat after being picked up as they crossed the English Channel – amid a record rise in the number of asylum claims being made in the UK.
Pictures taken at the Port of Dover on Friday show the Border Force vessel BF Typhoon pulling into the harbour before docking to unload more people believed to have been rescued as they tried to cross the Channel.
Among those to have been taken onto the boat were a young man in a plaid shirt, dark trousers, Nike trainers and a red lifejacket.
He can be seen carrying a small child wearing no shoes from the vessel as officials in high-visibility jackets look on.
More than 4,000 people have made the crossing this month – and the number of asylum applications made in the UK has has hit its highest level in two decades.
A migrant smiles as he carries a small girl from the Border Force boat Typhoon onto dry land at the Port of Dover in Kent on Friday
Asylum seekers can be seen milling around at the stern of the BF Typhoon after being picked up by the Border Force vessel
Migrants hand their lifejackets to Border Force staff as they prepare for processing after being brought to land by the agency on Friday
There were a total of 78,768 applications relating to 97,390 people in the year ending June 2023 – 19 per cent more than the previous year.
Other photos show migrants in red lifejackets milling around the stern of the Border Force boat as it docks at the quay.
They can then be seen walking up the gangplank onto dry land and handing the life vests to Border Force staff wearing high-visibility jackets.
Their arrival came after pictures emerged yesterday of a French naval vessel escorting a dinghy out of French waters into the English Channel, where it was then picked up by a Border Force patrol.
READ MORE: Tories tell Rishi Sunak to get a grip on immigration as asylum claims rocket to 20-year high and 1 million visas are handed out to students and foreign workers
A former head of the Border Force, Tony Smith, has claimed that migrants are ‘resisting rescue’ from French forces in order to reach the UK.
He told BBC Radio 4: ‘Those on board are not seeking rescue, because then they’ll be taken back to France.
‘So there is evidence that people are resisting rescue until such a time as they reach our waters and of course we are duty bound to rescue them.
‘Once they’re on board a British vessel they will claim asylum and that’s been the business model for some time now.’
New figures have revealed a total of 19,174 migrants made the treacherous crossing in 406 dinghies so far in 2023.
Last year saw a record 45,755 people make the journey overall, a 60 per cent increase on 2021.
On Thursday, 208 migrants packed themselves onto four dinghies to make their way to Britain, according to official Home Office statistics.
PM Rishi Sunak has been urged by his fellow Tories to get a grip on immigration following the revelation of the new record figures.
Despite Mr Sunak’s pledge to ‘stop the boats’, crossings continue to rise at levels higher than those seen in 2021, 2020 or 2019.
Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick said: ‘Small boats numbers are 15 percent down on last year, against a backdrop of rising numbers of illegal migrants elsewhere in Europe. We are also on track to reduce the legacy backlog of asylum claims.’
The Border Force boat carrying migrants from the English Channel arrives into Dover on Friday morning
The boat, carrying migrants in red lifejackets, arriving into Dover on Friday
A dinghy carrying around 50 migrants drifts into the English Channel after being escorted out of French territory on Thursday. Experts say they resist any help from French vessels in order to reach the UK
Migrants are helped onto a UK Border Force boat on Thursday after drifting into British waters. A total of 208 people made the crossing in four dinghies yesterday
But former Home Office minister Sir John Hayes told the Mail: ‘The Government needs to take further drastic, immediate steps to curb the increase in both illegal and legal migration.
‘It’s not just the boats – we are growing our population at an unsustainable rate and putting too much pressure on infrastructure such as housing.’
Small boat crossings in the last week
Albania was the most common nationality applying for asylum in Britain, with 11,790 applications – 7,557 of which came from arrivals on boats crossing the Channel.
Afghans were the second most common nationality, with 9,964 applications – almost double the number in the previous 12 months (5,154).
A total of 175,457 people were waiting for an initial decision on an asylum application in the UK at the end of June 2023, up 44% from 122,213 at the end of June 2022 – the highest figure since current records began in 2010.
The number of asylum seekers waiting more than six months for an initial decision stood at 139,961 at the end of June, up 57% year on year from 89,231 and another record.
The rise was ‘due to more cases entering the asylum system than receiving initial decisions’, the Home Office said.
However, the number of cases waiting for a decision has risen by less than 1% in the three months to the end of June, suggesting the increase is slowing down.
There were 23,702 initial decisions made on asylum applications in the UK in the year to June 2023, up 61% on 14,730 in the year to June 2022.
It is also above the 20,766 decisions made in the pre-pandemic calendar year of 2019.
Just over seven in 10 (71%) of initial decisions on asylum applications in the year to June 2023 were grants of refugee status, humanitarian protection or alternative forms of leave.
Support boat MCS Taku collects an inflatable dinghy from the water after around 50 migrants were loaded onto a Border Force vessel on Thursday
Migrants crossing the English Channel on Thursday, dodging huge vessels along the way
Children and families believed to be migrants are loaded onto a bus and driven out of a Border Force compound in Dover on Wednesday
This is ‘substantially higher’ than in pre-pandemic years, when around a third of initial decisions were grants, the Home Office said. The grant rate has been above 70% since 2021.
Before then, the previous high was in 1990, when it stood at 82%, although the volume of applications was much lower at that time.
Overall the asylum system cost £3.97billion in 2022-23, up from £2.12billion in the previous financial year and just £500million a decade ago. More than £6million is spent each day putting migrants up in hotels.
Stephen Kinnock, Labour’s Shadow Immigration Minister, said: ‘These new statistics set out in stark terms the complete chaos the Tories have created in the immigration and asylum system.
‘This is a disastrous record for the Prime Minister and Home Secretary.
‘With this level of mismanagement, there is very little prospect of reducing the eye-wateringly high bill for hotel rooms for all those left in limbo, currently costing the British taxpayer £6 million a day.’
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