Migrant dies as more than 150 head for UK on eighth straight day of small boat crossings
The English Channel is at the centre of a fresh migrant tragedy, after one person died while attempting to cross to the UK by small boat on Saturday.
A second migrant is reported to have fallen overboard from a small boat and is missing.
The tragedy comes as more small boats have made the illegal journey from France today, the eighth straight day of migrant crossings.
It takes the total number who have crossed since last Saturday to around 1,900 and has shattered all previous records for the number of migrant arrivals at this point in any year since the crisis began in 2016.
The latest death takes the number of migrants who have perished already this year to six.
French media are reporting that maritime authorities confirmed the migrant died early on Saturday morning near the community of Marck, in the Pas-de-Calais.
A lifeless body was dropped off on a local beach.
Despite efforts by rescue services to resuscitate the man, he was declared dead on the beach.
French newspapers said that migrant who died was a 60-year-old man from Kuwait.
The small boat that dropped his body on Marck beach is reported to have headed back out into the Channel and towards the UK.
GB News Kent producer said that the Border Force vessel Volunteer picked up those onboard one migrant boat, after it reached UK waters just before 10am.
He later counted 70 migrants being offloaded at the Border Force migrant processing centre at Dover harbour.
Another Border Force vessel Typhoon is picking up migrants from two more small boats that made it to British waters further along the Channel.
The latest arrivals mark a deepening crisis for Sir Keir Starmer, who promised to “smash the gangs.”
Instead, the new Labour government is scrambling to deal with record migrant arrivals.
One senior maritime security source told GB News that on current trends, “this year is set to easily overtake last year” in terms of those arriving by small boat.
More than 36,800 migrants arrived illegally across the Channel in 2024, a figure that was 25% higher than the previous year.
This year already, with almost 4,000 crossings, the figure is some 17% ahead of the 2024 at this point.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “We all want to end dangerous small boat crossings, which threaten lives and undermine our border security.
“The people-smuggling gangs do not care if the vulnerable people they exploit live or die, as long as they pay.
“We will stop at nothing to dismantle their business models and bring them to justice.”