Migrants will be housed in MARQUEES across the country under new Home Office plans – after it was revealed Border Force has intercepted more than 3,000 refugees this month
- A total of 10,962 people in 246 small boats have arrived in the UK so far this year
- READ MORE: Albanian small boat crossings surge after a winter drop-off
The Home Office is planning to house hundreds of migrants in marquees across the country.
The government’s plans come as today it was revealed that the number of Channel crossings by people in small boats so far this month is now higher than the number for June last year.
According to official figures, 312 asylum seekers were intercepted in eight boats by UK officials yesterday.
This brings the official number of migrant crossings this month to 3,303 in 68 boats – an average of 49 people crammed into each inflatable dinghy or other small craft.
More people thought to be migrants arrived in Dover earlier today as people smugglers took advantage of the weather of low winds and no rainfall.
Border Force vessel Ranger was spotted this afternoon patrolling the 21-mile Dover Straits after dropping a group of migrants at the port.
Pictured is a group of up to 80 migrants who were yesterday brought into Dover by a Border Force vessel
A total of 10,962 people in 246 small boats have arrived in the UK so far this year
READ MORE HERE: Luxurious rooms, a ‘wellness centre’, and even a nightclub: Inside the CRUISE SHIPS that could house Channel migrants in ‘Merseyside and Teesside’ under Rishi Sunak’s plan
Of the housing plans, a government source said that preparations are still very much in the early stages, according to Sky News.
Currently, many migrants are being housed in hotels across the Uk, costing costing the taxpayer £6million a day.
The Home Office has announced plans to house 5,000 migrants in alternative sites – but has previously said new arrivals, rather than migrants currently in hotels, will be sent to the new locations.
Former Ministry of Defence bases in Wethersfield, Essex, and Scampton, Lincolnshire, are due to receive their first migrants this summer, with the number of occupants rising to about 3,000 by the autumn.
Civil servants are also developing plans for migrant accommodation centres in Bexhill, East Sussex, and Catterick, North Yorkshire.
Meanwhile, the French coastguard rescued a further 24 migrants off the coast of Quend beach near Berck, northern France in the early hours of yesterday morning.
the French coastguard vessel Aber Ildut responded to reports of a boat in difficulty by the regional operational center for surveillance and rescue (CROSS) in Cap Gris-Nez.
The migrants were dropped off at the port of Boulogne, where they were taken care of by the departmental fire and rescue service and the border police.
A total of 10,962 people in 246 small boats have arrived in the UK so far this year, according to official government figures.
The busiest day came on June 11 when 549 migrants arrived in Dover in 10 vessels.
Comparatively, by June 22 in 2022, 11,806 asylum seekers had made the crossing.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has named stopping crossings by small boats one of his five priorities for the year, along with cutting NHS waiting lists, growing the economy, halving inflation and reducing the national debt.
Last year, a record 45,755 people crossed the Channel in inflatable dinghies or other small craft – 60 per cent higher than the previous year which saw 28,526 migrant crossings.
But officials have predicted that as many as 80,000 asylum seekers could make the journey in 2023.
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