A dinghy carrying 128 migrants reached UK waters on Friday morning after launching from a beach near Dieppe on Thursday night. Border Force took the group aboard Defender and moved them to Dover harbour just after 9am on Friday.
The crossing set a new record for the Channel: 128 people on one boat. That beat the previous high of 125 illegal immigrants packed onto a single boat in September last year.
Defender and Dover harbour
The dinghy had picked up large groups of migrants from two beaches south of Boulogne before it entered UK waters. The migrants were then transferred to the migrant processing facility at Dover harbour, and the dinghy was later winched onto the quayside in Dover.
For people making the crossing, the route is now being pushed farther along the coast. Hundreds more police officers have been deployed along beaches, particularly around Calais and Dunkirk, and that pressure has forced gangs to launch from beaches 100 miles south of Dunkirk and from spots along the Belgian coast.
The Home Office and the record
A Home Office spokesperson said: "Smuggling gangs are taking greater risks than ever with the number of people they are cramming into unseaworthy boats rising year on year." The spokesperson also said: "This crossing serves as a stark reminder that criminal gangs have no regard for the safety of those they claim to help, the reality is clear and lives are being lost in the Channel as a result."
The Home Office added: "This is exactly why we have signed a new deal with the French to prevent these perilous journeys by boosting enforcement action on beaches, building on the over 45,000 attempted crossings stopped since the election." Earlier this year, Shabana Mahmood signed a new three-year deal worth £662million to boost efforts against people smugglers.
Calais and Dunkirk
The record crossing sits beside that enforcement claim rather than replacing it. The figures show smugglers are still finding ways to pack more people into unseaworthy boats even as patrols increase around Calais and Dunkirk, and the route shifts toward more distant launch points.
What happens after Dover harbour is the immediate practical question for the 128 people taken off Defender, and this case already shows how quickly the route can move from beach launch to UK waters to processing facility in a few hours.
