Channel crossings: More than 100 migrants including baby reach UK by boat in near-freezing conditions
Five children, some too young to walk, seen visibly suffering from 1C temperatures
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Your support makes all the difference.Dozens of migrants including four children and a baby without socks or shoes have reached the UK after crossing the English Channel in near-freezing conditions.
Small boats carrying 111 people embarked on the crossing from France before being picked up by a Border Force cutter off the coast of Kent on Monday.
Five children wrapped up against the bitter cold were among those seen arriving in Dover.
The youngsters, some too young to walk, were visibly suffering from the 1C temperatures at the Kent port and were swaddled in blankets and life jackets.
Their arrival comes despite a recent £28m agreement between the UK and France to double police patrols on French beaches.
Earlier on Monday, Kent County Council announced it has begun accepting unaccompanied migrant children for the first time since the summer.
The local authority said it would resume taking in unaccompanied youngsters who arrive on boats, almost four months after it said it could no longer safely care for any new arrivals, prompting a scramble to find places elsewhere in the country.
But the council warned that a long-term solution still needed to be implemented to avoid services being overwhelmed again.
Under a £28.50 agreement aimed at reducing the number of migrants crossing the English Channel, Priti Patel, the home secretary, and her French counterpart, Gerald Darmanin, said they planned to increase the police presence and use drones to make the route more difficult to cross.
However Ms Patel has faced criticism for her handling of the issue, with one humanitarian charity warning the Home Office plan had "no chance of having a significant impact on this dangerous state of affairs".
Bella Sankey, director of Detention Action, said: “No amount of massaging the numbers masks her refusal to take the sensible step of creating a safe and legal route to the UK from northern France, thereby preventing crossings and child deaths.”
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