More than 14,000 migrants have arrived in the UK so far this year after another 419 made the journey in six boats yesterday

More than 14,000 migrants have arrived in the UK so far this year after another 419 made the journey in six boats yesterday.

Several children were among those pictured being brought ashore in Dover, Kent, amid calm weather conditions at sea on an overcast and rainy day.

Groups of people were seen being escorted from Border Force boats and lifeboats wearing life jackets, with some wrapped in blankets.

Home Office figures showed an average of around 70 people per boat successfully made the crossing yesterday - taking the provisional total for 2024 to date to 14,058.

This is 10 per cent higher than the number recorded this time last year (12,772) and up 6 per cent on the same period in 2022 (13,318), according to PA news agency analysis of Government data.

The latest crossings mean 484 migrants arrivals have been recorded over two days of activity in the Channel since Sir Keir Starmer became Prime Minister in the wake of Labour’s election victory last week.

But windy conditions in the Channel on Wednesday is thought to have prevented crossings being attempted for a third day in a row.

Last year, 29,437 migrants arrived in the UK after making the journey, down 36 per cent on a record 45,774 in 2022.

Prior to this week, it had been over a week since any migrants arrived, with poor weather conditions making it difficult for people smugglers to launch boats from French beaches.

So far in July, there have been 569 people in nine boats, this is down significantly on June, with 799 people arriving in 15 boats by the same point last month.

The official figures for yesterday come after the Daily Mail saw two dinghies making their way to England from a beach near Dunkirk, with migrants onboard one of the boats holding toy rubber tyre rings instead of life jackets.

Adult life jackets have now sold out in the Dunkirk area, so migrants are instead reliant on any kind of inflatable they can purchase in a feeble bid to protect themselves. 

Seventeen packets of the toy beach inflatables were left on the sand behind them.

And exasperated police, who raced to the scene too late with the aid of a couple of beach buggies, said they had earlier in the morning thwarted another two raids.

Earlier in the hours of darkness they had seized two uninflated giant dinghies and outboard motors from the car of a trio of suspected people smugglers in the town of Gravelines.

An officer told us yesterday: 'We catch some - but we can't catch them all. While my colleagues were arresting some of the ''ferrymen'' in town, then slashing their boats, scores more migrants were hiding in the dunes waiting for dinghies to arrive from the sea to pick them up.

'The migrants are so poised to come to England they have even set up a new camp for around a hundred of them right near the beach, so they are ready to board arriving ''taxi boats'' at any time.

'And these toy rubber rings they are using, they are designed to be played with on holiday, not used for safety on the high seas.

'The shops have sold out of adult life jackets, so they buy kids' stuff instead, hoping it is better than nothing.'

He added that a dozen migrants had turned back from the boat we had just seen set off because it was too full.

'With forty on board these dinghies it is dangerous enough,' said the officer. 'With fifty or sixty, it is a death trap - particularly if all you have is a children's rubber ring.'

Astonishingly there were several dozen more migrants lurking in the dunes at the same time as the boat we photographed launched yesterday.

Police said they were hoping a further boat would come from them, but retreated when police arrived.

As we spoke yet another dinghy launched further east was also out to sea heading to Britain.

Our police source sighed as he said: 'The migrants land on Lampedusa, the Italian island near Africa, get an Italian police stamp in their passports – and two days later they are here in northern France, waiting to go to England.

'Under European freedom of movement laws, there is no way of stopping them.'

It comes as as three asylum seekers who brought legal action over their potential removals to Rwanda had their cases resolved at the High Court today after the new Labour Government decided to scrap the deportation policy. 

Crossings resumed on the same day Home Secretary Yvette Cooper launched a Border Security Command designed to crack down on the gangs orchestrating the crossings. 

Ms Cooper branded the Rwanda migrant deportation scheme a 'complete con' this week as she hinted Labour would try to recoup some of the £290million spent before it was axed. 

Ms Cooper said she planned to audit the programme to send Channel boat arrivals to east Africa, which was axed by Sir Keir Starmer in one of his first decisions after entering No10.

But almost a third of a billion pounds has already been given to the Kagame government, despite the only migrants to leave Britain being four volunteers.

Questions will be raised over how much can be recouped. But Ms Cooper told LBC radio: 'We are auditing the whole scheme… It has clearly been a complete con.'

Ms Cooper said setting up the Border Security Command unit was Labour's first priority on migration as she faced questions on the future of the Bibby Stockholm barge, which is being used to house asylum seekers in Portland, Dorset.

She did not confirm whether the Government would abandon use of the barge but told reporters: 'We need to clear the Conservatives' asylum backlog, but the first priority has to be to get the stronger border security in place, and that is why our first step is setting up the new border security command.' 

Over the weekend Sir Keir Starmer said the stalled multi-million pound plan to send migrants to Rwanda is 'dead and buried' as he confirmed the deportation policy is to be scrapped.

The Prime Minister said he was 'not prepared to continue with gimmicks' as Labour announced plans to free the last two migrants who were detained ahead of anticipated flights.

Asked if she has had any contact with Rwanda about winding the plan down and getting any money back, Ms Cooper said: 'Well, the Prime Minister has obviously set out the position on the Rwanda scheme where as we know, the Conservatives ran this scheme for two and a half years, and sent simply four volunteers as well as hundreds of millions of pounds.'

She said her 'key priority' as incoming Home Secretary is to 'strengthen Britain's border security, where I think we have been let down for too long'.