Almost 500 migrants crossed the Channel over the weekend as the total this year rose above 8,000 despite the Rwanda deterrent.
At least 300 people were picked up by Border Force vessels and RNLI lifeboats despite choppy conditions in the world’s busiest shipping lane on Sunday.
Around 20 people, mainly men, were brought onto the beach at Dungeness while the majority were taken into the harbour at the Port of Dover.
A mixture of men, women and some small children were brought into the safety of the harbour.
One young British soldier aged in his 20s was seen carefully cradling a baby in his arms as a family disembarked a lifeboat.
He carried the baby slowly up the walkway while her parents helped her older sister who was seen crying after she fell over on the gangway.
The groups were taken onto coaches to be driven to the immigration processing centre at the former Manston airport.
It comes after 167 in 13 boats made the crossing on Saturday - the first to attempt the treacherous journey for five days due to strong winds at sea.
According to official figures 1,264 have made the crossing so far this month alone.
It takes the total so far this year to 8,066 who have been detained by Border Force in 256 small boats.
In 2021 a staggering 28,526 migrants crossed the Channel - significantly higher than the 8,410 who arrived in 2020.
The number of migrants who have arrived so far this year is around three times greater than last year's rate for the same period.
The arrivals come as it was revealed the first people have been notified of the government's intention to relocate them under the new migration and economic development partnership where their claims will be processed in Rwanda.
They will reportedly be put on flights within two weeks.
The minister for justice and tackling illegal migration, Tom Pursglove MP, has 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.
"Through our Nationality and Borders Bill, we're cracking down on people smugglers and fixing the broken system by making it a criminal offence to knowingly arrive in the UK illegally and introducing a maximum sentence of life imprisonment for those who facilitate illegal entry into our country."
AFGHAN CHILDREN'S LIVES 'AT RISK' FROM HOTEL WINDOWS
Hotel windows are putting Afghan refugee childrens’ lives at risk, a watchdog has found after a boy fell to his death.
An investigation by David Neal, the independent chief inspector of borders and immigration, found there were “inconsistent” safety checks on hotel windows to ensure they could not be opened by children.
There are more than 20,000 asylum seekers including around 12,000 Afghan refugees being housed in hotels at a cost of £4.7 million a day due to shortages of permanent local council accommodation. Many of the Afghans comprise big families with large numbers of children.
In some hotels, Mr Neal’s report revealed windows in high-rise hotels went unchecked for months. In some cases, the checks were even left up to housekeeping staff despite the risks of vulnerable children climbing out of them.
His disclosures follow the death of a five year old Afghan boy who fell from an unsecured window on the ninth floor of a Sheffield hotel. Guests who had previously stayed at the hotel with young children had complained about how the windows could be opened wide.
Mohammed Munib Majeedi, whose father worked at the UK embassy in Kabul before being airlifted out by the military, had been temporarily housed with other Afghan refugee families at the £33-a-night Metropolitan Hotel.
However, in his report, Mr Neal revealed there had been no requirement for checks on the Sheffield hotel’s windows because of a loophole in Home Office guidance.
Because it had been classed as a “contingency” hotel, where the Afghan families were to be housed only temporarily, it fell outside normal contract rules, which required checks to ensure there were measures, such as restrictors which stop windows being opened more than a few inches.
Even these checks, however, were inconsistent. “The frequency with which window restrictors were checked varied widely, from weekly checks in some properties to checks when a service user left a property, which potentially meant after a stay of many months,” said Mr Neal’s report.
“The responsibility for checking the window restrictors also varied across the properties, from service provider staff to subcontractors, hotel staff and even housekeeping staff.”
The Refugee Council warned it risked a repeat of the Sheffield tragedy. “The lack of universal processes and consistency in carrying out checks on window restrictors highlighted in the inspectorate report is very alarming,” said the council’s chief executive Enver Solomon.
“It falls well short of ensuring the risks are fully minimised so that another child does not fall to their death from a hotel window. The Home Office doesn’t appear to have learned the lessons and put in place all the necessary steps to avoid a repeat of the tragedy.”
Mr Neal’s inspectors examined contracts for providers of asylum accommodation including one that ran to “only three pages, covering 15 general areas, and did not include a check to ensure that window restrictors were in place.”
Inspectors said window restrictors were being used in most properties they visited but found rooms where they were “inoperable” or had been tampered with by the asylum seekers themselves either to get fresh air or to smoke.
The report said one of the problems was that different parts of the Home Office were procuring properties for different purposes, which meant it was difficult to maintain a consistency of approach. Mr Neal was unconvinced by senior civil servants proposals for sorting the problem.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “The Chief Inspector positively concludes that asylum accommodation providers are delivering in line with contractual requirements.
“Work is already underway to address the report’s recommendations and reduce the use of hotels which are costing the taxpayer almost £5million a day.
“This includes creating a fairer asylum dispersal system and setting up reception centres as part of the New Plan for Immigration.”
