Migrants are making the journey across the English Channel as Sir Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron are in crunch talks over a deal to curb the crossings.
Pictures show people wearing life jackets arriving in Dover, Kent disembarking from a Border Force boat amid sunny weather on Thursday.
Border Force vessels have been sent as part of the response to multiple boats on Thursday morning, according to HM coastguard.
A spokesman said: “HM Coastguard has been co-ordinating a response to multiple incidents involving small boats in the Channel this morning, 10 July.
“UK Border Force vessels have been sent as part of this response.”
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage posted on X that he was also in the Channel and saw 78 migrants, including four women and children.
Speaking to GB News from a boat in the Channel, he said: “This is a classic day in the English Channel over the last five years when the weather’s calm, or a red day, as they call it.
“You’ve got a migrant boat and we’ve seen it through the binoculars.
“There’s about 70 people on board, being escorted, all the way over by the French Navy and behind us, we have Border Force sitting on the 12-mile line, waiting for the handover.”
It comes as the Prime Minister and French president said a “new deterrent” was needed to stop small boats crossing the English Channel.
Sir Keir hopes President Macron will sign up to a “one in, one out” deal on Thursday, the last day of Mr Macron’s state visit to the UK.
There are 78 illegal migrants on board this boat in the English Channel.
— Nigel Farage MP (@Nigel_Farage) July 10, 2025
Only 4 of them are women and children.
Are you watching @DarrenPJones? pic.twitter.com/f4f6nh4ZLF
Under the terms of the deal, Britain would accept migrants with links to the country in exchange for sending others back across the Channel.
More than 21,000 people have arrived in the UK after crossing the English Channel so far this year, which is a record for this point in the year since data collection began in 2018.
But ahead of the agreement, Asylum Matters executive director Louise Calvey said: “Another grubby trade in human lives will do nothing more than remove people from this country back into the hands of people smugglers, back to French shores where they’ll face the escalating police violence that has been agreed alongside this deal- violence that will cost people their lives.
“The only way to stop people from making dangerous journeys is to give them safe routes to seek sanctuary.”
Speaking in Parliament as part of his state visit to the UK on Tuesday, Mr Macron said France and the UK have a “shared responsibility to address irregular migration with humanity, solidarity and fairness.”
A Home Office spokesperson said the Government has a “serious plan” to crack down on people smuggling gangs.
“We all want to end dangerous small boat crossings, which threaten lives and undermine our border security,” the spokesperson said.
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