Hundreds of migrants, including several very young children, have continued to cross the English Channel before conditions worsen over winter.
Mild conditions over the weekend has encouraged many more to attempt the perilous crossing despite the deaths seen in recent weeks.
Adults carrying youngsters and others wrapped in blankets were seen arriving on the south-east coast of England on Saturday with help from lifeboat crews.
Official figures have not yet been confirmed but it is believed hundreds of people made the journey.
Meanwhile, French officials said 243 people in difficulty were recovered and brought to safety at the ports of Boulogne-sur-Mer, Dunkirk and Calais.
It is thought at least 10 migrants have died in the last few weeks while trying to make the dangerous journey.
The latest crossings come amid ongoing political wrangling over how to deal with the issue.
The Government is considering processing asylum claims offshore and imposing stricter rules on those waiting to hear if they have been successful amid claims ministers have not done enough to tackle the migrant crisis.
Home secretary Priti Patel is said to have been impressed with centres being built in Greece, where migrants were put under strict curfews and faced routine checks on their movements, the Daily Telegraph reported.
More than 24,700 people have arrived in the UK so far this year after making the Channel crossing in small boats – almost three times the number there were in 2020.
Boris Johnson has reportedly drafted in Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Steve Barclay to oversee the situation, after becoming ‘exasperated’ with repeated failures to tackle the issue.
Shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds has accused Ms Patel of ‘comprehensively failing’ to stem the flow.
He told the Andrew Marr Show that it was a ‘dangerous failure’, adding: ‘And it appears the Prime Minister agrees because he seems to be putting the minister for the Cabinet Office in charge of a review of this.’
But health secretary Sajid Javid has hit back, claiming the coronavirus pandemic has made it more difficult to return failed asylum seekers back to their home countries.
He told Andrew Marr: ‘We do need new agreements with countries, predominately with the countries where most of the failed asylum seekers are coming from, and those aren’t always European countries, and this Home Secretary has done that, she has signed new agreements and put those in place with countries like India.
‘But also I would say that the pandemic has made returning people across the world, across asylum systems, much harder, and we do have to take that into account as well.’
MORE : 80 migrants saved from Channel in UK’s biggest rescue for three years
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