More than 1,000 migrants arrive in UK after crossing English Channel during current heatwave
More than 1,000 migrants arrived in England after crossing the English Channel in hot weather.
Migrants have traveled for six consecutive days since Friday as temperatures soared over the May bank holiday weekend.
Photos show people wearing life jackets and blankets disembarking from a Border Guard boat in Dover, Kent, on Wednesday.
Some 1,128 people reached the UK after crossing the Channel between Friday and Tuesday, according to Home Office figures.
Latest data shows 139 people made the journey on two boats on Tuesday, bringing the total number of arrivals for the year to 8,704 people.
That’s a 36% drop from this time last year and a 17% drop from the same point in 2024.
Temperatures rose to the hottest day of May for both England and Wales on Tuesday, according to the Met Office; Kew Gardens temporarily reached 35.1C and Cardiff Bute Park 32.9C.
The latest Home Office figures for arrivals on Wednesday will be published on Thursday.
Their arrivals come as three migrants were accused of endangering the lives of others during a sea crossing at the weekend, while three others were jailed after being found guilty of coming to the UK without entry permission.
Turkish national Osman Yeşil, 47, and Algerian national Tawfiq Boubazine, 33, appeared on Friday and pleaded guilty at their first hearing at Folkestone Magistrates’ Court on Monday.
The Crown Prosecution Service said they were both sentenced to eight months in prison.
Albanian national Elidjon Cota, 29, pleaded guilty to the same charge on Tuesday and was sentenced to eight months in prison after arriving in the UK on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Sudanese nationals Jiechlat Buom, 25, and Kueth Gatkuoth, 31, were charged with endangering others after arriving in the UK on Saturday.
They will appear at Canterbury Crown Court for a plea hearing on June 29.
Mahdi Najafi, 42, an Iranian national who was accused of the same crime after arriving on Friday, will also face a defense hearing in the same court on June 22.
Sarah Dineley, the CPS’s immigration crime officer, said: “The majority of these cases were charged within a matter of hours over this bank holiday weekend, meaning defendants were brought before court within days of arriving in the UK.
“CPS continues to work with international partners to disrupt and dismantle the organized crime groups ultimately responsible for small boat crossings.
“Where there is sufficient evidence we will use the laws at our disposal to prosecute and it is in the public interest to do so.”
