Migrants seize on heat climate to cross English Channel – marking first small boat arrivals in Dover since UK’s £662m cope with France

Migrants seized on the warmer weather and crossed the English Channel on Saturday, marking the first small boat arrivals since the UK signed a new agreement with the French this week to curb crossings.

A group of more than a dozen people thought to be migrants, including women and children, were pictured being brought into the Border Security Command compound in Dover after being collected in the Channel.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood signed a three-year agreement with France on Thursday to pay £662 million to support beach patrols as part of efforts to drive down the number of arrivals.

The Home Office said the arrangement would see officers ‘targeting and detaining’ migrants on the French coast with the aim of removing hundreds of small boat migrants from beaches every year to stop them entering the water.

It means the UK will hand over £501 million to cover five police units and enforcement activity on French beaches – with an extra £160 million only paid if new tactics to curb Channel crossings succeed.

If efforts fail, the additional funding will stop after a year, the Home Office said.

Ministers have, however, stopped short of setting specific targets to measure the success of the deal.

So far this year, more than 6,000 migrants have arrived in the UK after making the journey, down 36% on the number this time last year, Press Association analysis of Government figures shows.

With British taxpayers to hand the French up to £660million, the total paid since the start of the Channel crisis has been pushed past £1.3billion.

Labour has agreed to give Emmanuel Macron’s government a ‘core package’ of £500million – spread over the next three years – to continue funding anti-migrant operations by French police.

A further £160million will also be handed over to fund new tactics by the French including stopping dinghies once they are already in the water.

However, the additional sum – about £53million a year – will only continue after the first year if the French deliver results.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is due to sign the agreement in Paris on Thursday.

A previous three-year, £500million deal was agreed in 2023 by then Tory PM Rishi Sunak and since then more than 84,000 migrants have reached Britain across the Channel.

It has also been confirmed for the first time that French authorities’ new initiative to stop boats at sea will only apply to dinghies with fewer than 20 migrants aboard.

The limit has been imposed amid French concerns that intercepting more crowded vessels could lead to loss of life.

French officers stopped a smugglers’ ‘taxi boat’ for the first time in January and the tactics have only been used a couple of times since.

Under Labour’s new agreement the £53million-a-year extra payments will partly depend on how many boats are intercepted at sea.

British cash will pay for a new specialist vessel for the French to use in interceptions, and 20 extra trained maritime officers to carry out the work.

It will also be used to pay for two new helicopters for the French to use in surveillance operations along their coastline.

Further British funds will cover the cost of a new 50-strong police riot squad specially trained in dispersing large groups of people.

In all, the deal will fund a 40 per cent increase in the number of French police, intelligence operatives and military reservists involved in counter-migrant patrols, from about 750 to 1,100.

A specialist intelligence unit targeting traffickers will also be expanded to 30 staff, and there will be extra surveillance drones and a new system of security cameras.

Exact criteria for assessing French performance have not been disclosed.