People-smuggling gangs exploited the weather and calm sea conditions in the English Channel to bring around 100 migrants to Dover yesterday.
Between May 23 and May 29, 13 boats carried nearly 1,000 migrants across the Channel; 128 of them arrived on Friday alone.
As temperatures rose sharply in late May, crossings have persisted throughout the past week.
When they arrived in Dover, refugees were observed strolling around the docks as Border Force officers helped the newcomers and started processing them.
Before assisting the migrants on land, Border Force ships guided them into Kent’s Dover Docks.
It is believed that the favorable weather during the bank holiday weekend offered one of the best crossing possibilities in recent weeks.
The Met Office reports that on Tuesday, temperatures in Wales and England hit all-time highs for May.
Bute Park in Cardiff recorded 32.9C, while Kew Gardens in London had a tentative temperature of 35.1C.
Over the bank holiday weekend, hundreds of Channel migrants landed in Britain as a result of an increase in small boat crossings brought on by the good weather.
A group of individuals believed to be migrants are taken into the Dover, Kent, Border Security Command facility.
Images from a Border Security Command boat at Dover, Kent, show passengers getting off.
This comes as human rights activists criticized the Home Office for moving forward with plans to implement an AI-powered facial recognition system intended to identify adult migrants who are pretending to be children.
Essex-based Akhter Computers has been given a £322,000 contract to create technology that can determine a person’s age from border photos.
According to ministers, the approach will protect support resources meant for children who are at risk by preventing adults from entering the care system through fake age claims.
Before a planned introduction in 2027, the technology has passed preliminary testing and will be tested at Dover’s Western Jet Foil processing facility.
Concerns regarding the accuracy of current age-assessment techniques and an increase in asylum petitions have prompted this action.
According to official statistics, in the year ending in March 2026, over 6,400 migrants who claimed to be children had age evaluations; about half of them were finally determined to be adults.
This also coincides with the announcement that, according to a recent YouGov poll, over seven out of ten people are against Labour’s proposals to replace in-person English language tests for immigrants with online exams.
According to the survey, only 22% of participants supported the change, while 68% of respondents—including a sizable majority of Labour voters—were against it.
Migrants were observed strolling around the docks upon arriving in Dover, while Border Force personnel helped the newcomers and started processing them.
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In order to replace the current system of supervised tests with a digital-first one, the Home Office is looking for a supplier for the £816 million Home Office English Language Test (HOELT).
Remote testing may be more susceptible to cheating and erode immigration rules, according to critics.
The arrivals coincided with the conviction of three migrants for entering the UK without a valid entry clearance and the charging of three migrants for endangering lives during Channel crossings over the weekend.
Following their arrival in the UK on Friday, May 22, Osman Yesil, 47, of Turkey, and Tawfiq Boubazine, 33, of Algeria, entered guilty pleas at their initial appearances before Folkestone Magistrates’ Court on Monday.
Both men received eight-month prison sentences, according to the Crown Prosecution Service.
Elidjon Cota, a 29-year-old Albanian who arrived in the UK on Saturday, also entered a guilty plea to the same crime. On Tuesday, he was given an eight-month prison sentence.
Following their arrival in the UK on Saturday, May 23, Sudanese nationals Jiechlat Buom, 25, and Kueth Gatkuoth, 31, were accused of endangering the lives of others during a Channel crossing.
On June 29, they are scheduled to appear in Canterbury Crown Court for a plea hearing.
Mehdi Najafi, a 42-year-old Iranian national who arrived on Friday, May 22 and is accused of the same crime, is due to appear before the same court on June 22 for a plea hearing.
