Nine people, including three children, were detained after they crossed the Channel in a small inflatable boat and landed on a beach in Kent on Boxing Day.

The Dover coastguard spotted a vessel west of Folkestone at 11.53pm on Wednesday. Border Force officers were deployed to attend to the passengers on shore. The group, which included five men, one woman, two boys and one girl – were detained and were being processed in line with immigration rules, the Home Office said.

The crossings follow a number of rescues in recent months involving people trying to reach Britain via the Channel.

On Christmas Day, authorities were called to five separate incidents with some of those rescued including young children. More than 40 people, presenting themselves as Iraqi, Iranian and Afghan, tried to cross the Channel.

The Littlestone lifeboat station manager, Matt Crittenden, said they were called at about 12.40am to reports of people in a small inflatable boat, three miles (5km) off the coast at Sandgate.

He said: “There were very scant details. We launched at around 1am and headed down and Rescue 163, the rescue coastguard helicopter from Lydd, joined us. They managed to locate the boat, which was empty at that stage, and very, very near the shore.”

Crittenden said the Littlestone lifeboat crew did a shoreline search before the migrants were discovered on the beach at Sandgate by the rescue helicopter.

Crittenden said the boat used to cross the Channel was 13ft (4 metres) long with a very small 10-horsepower engine on the back. “I am sure it won’t be the last that we go to … they are very desperate people,” he added.



South East Coast Ambulance confirmed they attended to nine migrants who had come off a vessel and were on the Esplanade Sandgate at 00.56 this morning. A spokesperson said: “Four vehicles from our HART team attended to assess the patients for hypothermia. All were treated on scene and passed on to Border Forces officials.”

A crew from Dover lifeboat station was also dispatched on Thursday morning after up to eight people were spotted on a craft by the Spirit of Britain ferry. Border Force officials are also assisting with that operation.

The Home Office said earlier this week that “organised criminal gang activity is behind illegal migration attempts by small boats across the Channel”.