Horror crossing the Channel as migrants were ‘stabbed’ on small boat rammed with 60 people
A migrant was reportedly stabbed as he crossed the Channel in a small boat rammed with 60 people before being taken to hospital by blue light.
A Border Force vessel and two rescue boats arrived at the chaotic scene just after 12.50pm today following reports of an incident at Dover Western docks.
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The injured migrant was taken onto the Walmer lifeboat and then transported to Dover harbour.
They were met by emergency services and transported to hospital.
The extent of the migrant’s injuries is not yet known, but is described as non-life-threatening.
The remaining 60 migrants on site were taken onto the Dover lifeboat.
They were met by Police who took them to the nearby Border Force processing facility.
The small boat was one of eight that arrived today, carrying a combined 450 people.
A spokesperson for the Home office confirmed that Kent Police are handling the incident.
A Kent Police spokesperson said: “At 12.52pm on Wednesday, March 20, Kent Police received a report of a man with injuries consistent with stab wounds, following the arrival of a small boat at Dover’s western docks.
“The man has been taken to hospital with injuries not described as life-threatening and officers are carrying out investigations to establish the full circumstances, including where, when and how the injuries were sustained.”
Today’s 450 arrivals mark the latest single-day record, with 401 making the crossing in a single day in early March.
It comes as dozens of migrants make the treacherous crossing to Britain.
Earlier this month a schoolgirl died tragically after the boat she and her family were on capsized on the way to Britain.
The girl, just seven years old, was among 16 migrants who had to be pulled from the water but could not be saved, French authorities said.
Authorities confirmed that disaster struck when the boat tried to cross the English Channel around 6:30 am.
Just days before, the bodies of three migrants were pulled out of the Channel.
The asylum seekers were declared dead after falling into the water off the coast of Cap Gris-Nez, in the north France.
The last fatalities in the Channel before this happened on January 14.
Five migrants died trying to make the perilous journey through the 20-mile Strait of Dover.
‘Larger than Dover population’
By Kate Ferguson
THE number of small boat migrants coming to Britain since 2018 is larger than the population of Dover.
A total of 116,577 people came in rubber boats, Home office statistics revealed.
That exceeds the 116,400 residents of the Channel Gate.
Labor’s Shadow Minister for Immigration, Stefan Kinnocksaid yesterday: “It is a shocking indictment of the Conservatives’ failure to allow criminal smuggling gangs to establish themselves along the coast.
“That failure costs our country billions, while our borders remain uncertain.”
P.M Rishi Sunak has the stopping of the small boat migrants one of his promises.
But his plan to deport many of them Rwanda has been swallowed legal challenges and parliamentary control.
He’s still hopeful he can get a run off the ground before the election election.
Lord Keir Starmer says he would turn the tide by doing more to destroy the criminal gangs behind the evil trade.
But government emphasizes that this is already happening.
It says Labor opposes the Rwanda plan shows that the party is weak in the area of border control