More than 4,000 people have made the dangerous journey across the English Channel aboard small boats so far in 2022 – around four times as many as this time last year.

Young children wearing woolly hats were among a group of people guided up Dungeness beach in Kent on Thursday after being brought ashore aboard a lifeboat.

They were among nearly 200 people who succeeded in reaching the UK, while three boats were turned back by French patrols.

Border Force boats are active in the Dover Strait on Friday, with one migrant boat believed to have made it ashore in the early hours of the morning.

The Home Office has considered everything from pushing back dinghies at sea to sending in the Royal Navy in its efforts to make the route “unviable”.

Some 28,526 people crossed the Channel in small boats last year, according to official figures, but this is expected to almost double in 2022, according to a union representing Border Force workers.

The government’s planning estimate of nearly 60,000 arrivals was made before Russia invaded Ukraine, sparking a huge refugee crisis in eastern Europe.

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At least 190 people travelling in six small boats reached the UK on Thursday, the Home Office has confirmed.

Among them were large group of people, some seen carrying their belongings in plastic bags, who were escorted along Dungeness beach by officials to be processed after being brought ashore.

Home Office says rise in crossings ‘unacceptable’

As of 24 March more than 4,080 people have succeeded in making the crossing aboard small boats, according to data compiled by Sky News.

This is despite the busy shipping lanes claiming many lives in recent months.

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This year’s total so far presents a significant uptick on the same point in 2021, when just over 1,000 people had reached UK shores – data from the PA news agency shows.

Home office minister Tom Pursglove MP said: “The rise in dangerous Channel crossings is unacceptable.

“Not only are they an overt abuse of our immigration laws but they also impact on the UK taxpayer, risk lives and our ability to help refugees come to the UK via safe and legal routes. Rightly, the British public has had enough.” 

He added that the government’s Nationality and Borders Bill will crack down on people smugglers and help fix “the broken system”.

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