Channel people smugglers have been condemned as “callous and extremely reckless” after launching a migrant boat, with women and children onboard, in dangerous conditions on Saturday.
Despite sustained winds of more than 20mph and heavy swells, the small boat made it to UK waters around 7.30am today.
Twenty-five migrants on board the boat were transferred to the Border Force vessel Volunteer.
As GB News filmed the migrants disembarking at Dover Harbour, half a dozen women and young children could be seen among them.
Channel people smugglers have been condemned as “callous and extremely reckless” after launching a migrant boat, with women and children onboard, in dangerous conditions on Saturday
GB News
One senior maritime security source told GB News: “This is crazy. No one was expecting migrant crossings today after weather conditions worsened overnight.
“But this just shows how callous and completely reckless the criminal gangs are.
“They should never be launching these flimsy boats in this weather but they just continue to test the limits, pushing boats out to sea in conditions that would normally prevent them.
“They don’t care, they just want to make money, but they really are risking lives by doing this.”
The 25 arrivals on Saturday, follow 253 who made the illegal crossing in five small boats on Good Friday.
That followed a record 705 migrants who made journey on Tuesday, the biggest single day of arrivals so far this year.
In just over a week, 2,150 migrants have crossed France, bringing the total number of arrivals so far this year to 9,378.
That number is 43 per cent higher than at the same point last year and a huge 81 per cent higher than at the same stage in 2023.
More arrivals have been recorded in January to April in 2025 than in the equivalent four-month period in any year since the small boat crisis began in 2018.
The figures mark a major blow for the Prime Minister’s policy of smashing the criminal gangs.
Sir Keir Starmer scrapped the previous government’s plan to send Channel migrants off to Rwanda for processing.
Instead, the Labour government has diverted millions from the Rwanda scheme into a new Border Security Command.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “We all want to end dangerous small boat crossings, threaten lives and undermine our border security.
“That’s with this government is investing in border security, increasing returns to their highest levels for more than half a decade, and imposing a major crackdown on illegal working to end the false promise of jobs, used by gangs to sell spaces on boats.”
