Wheelchair-bound man and young children among latest wave of cross-Channel migrants

A wheelchair-bound man and young children were among 30 migrants who reached England in small boats across the Channel on Thursday, despite poor weather and 30mph winds.

It brings to more than 1,430 the number of migrants who have crossed the Channel so far this year, more than double the 511 in the first three months of 2020.

Last year saw an overall record of 8,713 arrivals.

No crossings had been expected on Thursday as conditions deteriorated following this week's mini-heatwave which saw people smugglers taking advantage of the warm weather to traffick dozens of asylum seekers across from France.

However, Border Force vessel Vigilant was seen unloading around 30 migrants shortly after midday at Dover Marina, Kent.

On Wednesday, 81 migrants including small children and a heavily pregnant woman arrived. It followed 148 who landed on Tuesday, making it the second busiest day of the year so far.

Watch: Migrant crossings continue to rise in 2021

On Thursday, one youngster was seen wearing a woolly hat shaped like a rabbit and another wore rainbow-coloured waterproof leggings as they stepped foot in the harbour.

Another toddler, who was too young to walk, had to be carried by an immigration enforcement officer. And a disabled man was also seen needing a wheelchair to make his way up the gangway for processing.

All of the migrants were wearing red lifejackets and disposable face masks as they disembarked from a black Border Force vessel.

There are fears smugglers are exploiting the impending crackdown on illegal migrants’ asylum claims to encourage more to take risks.

Tony Smith, former director general of the Border Force, warned that smugglers would be exploiting the publicity over the Home Secretary’s crackdown on asylum recently to tell migrant they needed to cross in order to beat the new measures.

“There will be an acceleration in the activity to get in under the wire before the Government does whatever it is going to do,” Mr Smith told The Telegraph.