First small boats arrive in UK after £662m migration deal with France
More than a dozen supposed migrants were pictured being escorted off a UK Border Force boat on Saturday.
More than a dozen supposed migrants, including women and children, were pictured being escorted off a UK Border Force boat in Dover on Saturday - the first since the Home Secretary signed a new UK-France migrant deal this week.
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The new £662m agreement will see French police officers "targeting and detaining" people on the country's coast, says the Home Office.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood signed the three year deal in Dunkirk last week, with plans to remove hundreds of migrants from beaches every year.
It is hoped that the new measures will stop migrants from boarding boats to cross the Channel - although ministers are yet to set specific targets to measure the success of the agreement.
Despite this, on Saturday a group of over a dozen people thought to be migrants, including women and children, were pictured being escorted off a UK Border Force boat in Dover, Kent.
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It appears they were taken to the Border Security Command compound after being collected in the Channel.
Heightened measures included in the deal to curb small boat crossings include sending a team of 50 riot police to beaches to stop migrants entering the Channel.
The officers will be trained in "riot and crowd control tactics" and will be deployed to tackle violence and "hostile crowds" at the shore.
Alongside this, drone and camera surveillance, as well as helicopter patrols, will be increased.
Around 200 officers are also to man a new detention centre in Dunkirk focused on deporting migrants, which is expected to open by the end of the year.
The new agreement is due to come into force this summer - typically the busiest time of year for crossings.
By then, the Home Office estimates that he number of officers sent to curb attempted journeys from northern France will rise by about 42%.
The agreement will see Britain pay £501 million to cover five police units and enforcement activity on French beaches to curb migration.
An extra £160 million will only handed over if the new tactics are successful.
If not, the additional funding will stop after a year.
It is understood that over 6,000 migrants have arrived in the UK so far this year - a reduction of 36% on figures from this time last year.