The Home Office has revealed that authorities dealt with more than 100 people crossing the Channel yesterday.

Despite near zero temperatures, calm conditions saw Border Force involved in six separate incidents.

In total, 103 people are believed to have been taken to the Port of Dover after leaving northern France.

In addition to these cases, the French authorities prevented three boats with 29 people on board entering UK waters.

Inmigration minister Chris Philp said: “People should claim asylum in the first safe country they reach and not risk their lives making a dangerous and illegally-facilitated crossing.

“The Government has taken substantial steps to tackle this unacceptable problem of illegal migration.

"These efforts have contributed to a 70% reduction in crossings since September on fair-weather days, by direct intervention on the French beaches.

"This means that we have been able to change the patterns of crossings that resulted in a surge of small boat activity 2018 and 2019."

In response, Bridget Chapman, of the Kent Refugee Action Network, said: "This issue is not going away and pretending it will is an abdication of responsibility.

"It is time the Home Office dispense with their aggressive rhetoric - which helps absolutely no one - and take a far more proactive approach working with their French counterparts to provide safe and legal routes for those wishing to make asylum claims in the UK.

"A failure by the UK to take our share of what is a global responsibility will only lead to more needless deaths and that is an appalling prospect and utterly shameful. We are better than this."

Read more: All the latest news from Dover