CHANNEL CHAOS
Dinghy carrying 20 migrants arrives off Dover coast as RAF called in after hundreds make Channel crossing over weekend
A DINGHY carrying 20 Syrian migrants arrived off the shores of Dover today as the RAF were called in to monitor the growing crisis.
The packed vessel made its way across the English Channel on Monday morning after a weekend of chaos off the Kent coast.
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Hundreds more migrants, including children, made the perilous journey over the weekend.
The migrants' flimsy boat was met by Border Force patrol boat Hunter at about 7.15am this morning with the White Cliffs in sight.
It is expected that they will be taken ashore at Dover later this morning.
An RAF jet was sent to circle the Kent coast from around 6am this morning in the hope of intercept boats making the life-risking journey.
The A400M Atlas - part of the national standby force - was scrambled from RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire after Priti Patel begged the military to intervene.
At least 565 migrants crossed the Channel between Thursday and Sunday and more than 4,000 have made the journey so far this year - more than the whole of 2019.
The RAF stepped in after Navy chiefs insisted they had no more power than the Border Force to turn migrants’ dinghies around.
“The Navy can’t wave a magic wand,” an officer said.
“It depends what the Home Office is asking for, but ships might not be the best answer. Overhead surveillance and reconnaissance might be more useful for the border force vessels.”
France has demanded £30million to stop the migrants' small boats leaving its shores.
FRANCE'S £30M DEMAND
This year, more than 4,000 migrants have crossed illegally in dinghies and other small craft — double last year’s entire total.
Home Secretary Priti Patel visited Border Force officials in Dover today as the UK looks to secure a deal with France to stop the dangerous journeys.
A diplomatic team will head to Paris this week to thrash out negotiations over the crisis.
Home Office minister Chris Philp and his team will meet French officials who are said to be seeking a further £30million to deal with boats launched from beaches near Calais.
Britain has paid more than £100million to fund the French response to the crisis in recent years.
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Mr Philp said: “We have to make the route completely unviable.
"Then migrants will have no incentive to come to northern France or attempt the crossing in the first place.”
Yesterday, a toddler was among those brought ashore on a Border Force patrol boat.
Several other children, including a baby, were brought in with adults later in the day.
RAF SPOTTER PLANE SCRAMBLED
THE A400M Atlas was scrambled from RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire at 6am today
The turbo-prop plane flew up and down the Dover Strait as hundreds more illegal migrants prepared to make the perilous Channel crossing.
The Atlas aircraft, which has a maximum altitude of 40,000 feet, patrolled a 50 mile stretch of waters from Dungeness to Ramsgate, in Kent.
Flight trackers showed it focused on the water south east of Dover, in the direction of the migrant camps in Calais.
“The A400M is a primarily a transport plane, it is not designed for surveillance. This looks like a rough and ready solution,” a defence source said.
“It has a pilot, a navigator and a loadmaster. They may just be using their eyeballs for surveillance instead of anything high tech.”
The Atlas planes replaced the RAF Hercules, which first entered service in the 1950s and is used to deliver troops and supplies into tactical landing zones.
The Atlas can carry a maximum payload of 37 tonnes of cargo, including up to 116 fully equipped troops and Chinook helicopters.
Sir David Normington, former permanent secretary at the Home Office, said the "only solution" is to work with French officials to "persuade them to intensify their efforts to stop illegal migrants".
He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "Well, if it takes money to help the French increase their resources and their manpower then that will have to be done.
"There's a long history of Britain putting money into resources for the French on the French coast."
Last year, Home Secretary Priti Patel's vowed the crossings would have become an "infrequent phenomenon" by now.
MAKESHIFT CAMP IN CALAIS
About 750 migrants are camped in a new makeshift site in a field next to a hospital in Calais.
Many say they are planning to cross the Channel soon.
Migrants told The Sun that they believed the risk of dying on a small boat was worth it if they were to achieve their aim of reaching Britain — which some labelled “heaven”.
They are desperate to be given the nod by smugglers who often charge thousands for a spot on a small dinghy before being shoved out in the direction of Dover.
The migrants have already travelled from Sudan, Iran, Iraq, Tunisia and Afghanistan.
We do have an unacceptable situation of many migrants coming across the Channel at the moment
Helen Whately, care minister
Mohammed Yousef, 34, who has been in the camp for several weeks after arriving from Sudan, said: “I’ve already risked so much and been through so much danger to get here.
"It’s all to get to the UK. It’s a brilliant place. We all want to enter the UK.”
The journey can be dangerous in the best of weather, but seas early on Monday were choppy.
One migrant could be seen bailing out water with a plastic container from the boat, which sat low in the water, while another was spotted smoking a cigarette.
When asked how they were, many of the migrants put their thumbs up and replied that they were OK.
Care minister Helen Whately has said the "unacceptable situation" of migrant crossings in the English Channel "absolutely needs to stop".
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She told Sky News: "We do have an unacceptable situation of many migrants coming across the Channel at the moment.
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"It's also a dangerous route, there's real risk to life for those coming across, it's obviously a form of illegal immigration, it's not the right way to come to the United Kingdom.
"So, we are taking action."
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Harrowing video of baby in a bag shows how desperate migrants risk everything to get to UK