The boat reached a beach near Dover.
(file image) The boat reached England on Monday (Image: Getty)
A boat carrying 21 migrants landed on a UK beach on Monday as foggy weather hit the country. The boat reached Samphire Hoe, near Dover, in Kent. The Home Office said the boat was intercepted on land in Dover for safety reasons, adding that all 21 people were detained and processed in the usual way.
This comes as more than 350 people arrived in the UK by making the perilous English Channel crossing in small boats on Saturday, the latest migration figures show. Some 363 migrants crossed in five boats, according to figures published by the Home Office.
And 161 people made the journey in three boats on Friday, breaking a four-day period of no crossings. A total of 23,129 people have now crossed the English Channel since the start of 2026.
That remains far below last year’s total of more than 41,000 people, and is the lowest number for the year to date since 2022, when 39,939 people made the journey by November 7. Earlier this month, the MP for Dover said smuggling gangs will develop new tactics after it emerged that a rubber boat carrying 38 migrants had launched from the Netherlands.
Mike Tapp, MP for the Kent port town, later told the BBC: “As launch disruptions grow, the criminal gangs will adapt and a part of that will be finding new launch locations and methods. That means our operational efforts must also be agile. We have seen a significant reduction in crossings this year, but we still have a long way to go.”
Meanwhile, Dutch deputy prime minister Bart van den Brink, who is also minister of asylum and migration, said it was “highly disturbing” that such an incident happened in Dutch waters and that the Netherlands’ authorities will discuss what can be learned.
The total number of arrivals for 2026 stood at 21,869 at the end of October, according to Home Office figures.
The Government has said crossings are down significantly, with the lowest number of summer arrivals – a period when journeys often rise in part due to the warmer weather – since 2020 recorded this year.