SMALL BOAT SHOCK Channel crossing horror as migrant ‘stabbed’ on small boat rammed with 60 people
A MIGRANT was reportedly stabbed while crossing the Channel in a small boat rammed with 60 people before being blue-lighted to hospital.
A Border Force vessel and two lifeboats arrived at the chaotic scene just after 12.50pm today following reports of an incident at Dover Western Docks.
The injured migrant was taken onto the Walmer lifeboat and then transported to Dover harbour.
They were met by emergency services and transported to hospital.
The extent of the migrant's injuries are not yet known but have been described as non-life-threatening.
A remaining 60 migrants at the scene were brought onto the Dover lifeboat.They were met by police who took them to the nearby Border Force processing facility.
The small boat was one of eight that arrived today, carrying 450 people between them.
A spokesperson for the Home Office confirmed Kent Police are handling the incident.
A Kent Police spokesperson said: "At 12.52pm on Wednesday 20 March, Kent Police received a report of a man with injuries consistent with stab wounds, following the arrival of a small boat at Dover Western Docks."The man has been taken to hospital with injuries which are not described as life-threatening and officers are carrying out enquiries to establish the full circumstances, including where, when and how the injuries were sustained."
The 450 arrivals today mark the latest one-day record, with 401 making the crossing in one day at the start of March.
It comes as dozens of migrants make the treacherous crossing to the UK.
Earlier this month a schoolgirl tragically died after the boat she and her family were on capsized on its way to the UK.
The girl, just seven-years-old, was among 16 migrants who had to be pulled from the water, but could not be saved, French authorities reported.
Authorities confirmed tragedy struck as the boat set out to cross the English Channel around 6.30am.
Just days prior, the bodies of three migrants were pulled from the Channel.
The asylum seekers were pronounced dead after falling into the water off the coast of Cap Gris-Nez, northern France.
The last fatalities in the Channel before this happened on January 14.
Five migrants died while trying to make the dangerous journey across the 21-mile Dover Straits.
'Bigger than Dover population'
By Kate Ferguson
THE number of small boat migrants coming to Britain since 2018 is bigger than the population of Dover.
A total of 116,577 people have turned up on dinghies, Home Office stats revealed.
That surpasses the 116,400 residents of the Channel port.
Labour’s Shadow Immigration Minister, Stephen Kinnock, said yesterday: “It is a shocking indictment of the Conservatives’ failure which has allowed criminal smuggling gangs to take hold along the coast.
“That failure is costing our country billions, while leaving our borders insecure.”
PM Rishi Sunak has made stopping the small boat migrants one of his pledges.
But his plan to deport many of them to Rwanda has been snarled up in legal challenges and parliamentary scrutiny.
He is still hopeful of being able to get a flight off the ground before the election.
Sir Keir Starmer says he would stem the tide by doing more to smash the criminal gangs behind the evil trade.
But the Government insists it is already doing that.
It says Labour’s opposition to the Rwanda plan shows the party is weak on border control
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