Yahoo News 444 migrants attempt to cross English Channel in single day as Rwanda deportation flight cancelled
A total of 444 people were detected crossing the English Channel in small boats on Tuesday, the Government has revealed.
This is the highest number of people since 562 were recorded on April 14 earlier this year.
Some 11 boats were detected on Tuesday, which suggests an average of around 40 people crossed the Channel per boat.
On Wednesday morning, more than 50 people including women and children had been brought ashore in Dover. Border Force ship Typhoon docked and around 38 adults and 15 children were brought ashore.This is the first rescue in what is expected to be a busy day for attempted migrant crossings due to the good weather.
In May it was reported that 7,240 people crossed the English Channel since the start of 2022 - more than three times the number recorded for the same period in 2021 and more than seven times the amount recorded at this point in 2020.
High numbers of people crossing the English Channel is exactly what the government is hoping to curb with its controversial policy of sending asylum seekers to Rwanda.
In April, a joint letter between the British government and the Rwandan foreign minister said they aimed to “disrupt the business model of organised crime gangs and deter migrants from putting their lives at risk”.
Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey was unable to say when a second attempt would be made to send a deportation flight to Rwanda after the first one was grounded after a series of legal rulings.
Speaking on Sky News, she said: “The Home Office is already getting ready for the next flight and we will continue to prepare and try and overturn any future legal challenges as well.”
But pressed if it would be days or weeks, she responded: “I’m not going to get into operational disclosures.”
Up to seven people had been expected to be removed to the east African country on the scheduled 10.30pm flight on Tuesday from a military airport in Wiltshire.
But the European court granted injunctions blocking the removal of those who had been scheduled to be on the plane.
It was reported that the appeals were considered by an out of hours judge on papers, overruling earlier UK rulings. The court decided there was “a real risk of irreversible harm” to the asylum seekers involved.
A number of Tory MPs were calling for the Government to reduce the scope of the European Convention on Human Rights or European Court of Human Rights in Britain.
