Caller from Kent gives eyewitness account of migrants landing on beach
20 July 2021, 10:18
Caller describes seeing migrants landing on Kent coast
This caller told LBC he witnessed 40 migrants landing in just one day, but he believes many more may be going undetected.
After at least 430 migrants made the journey across the English Channel to the UK on Monday, a new record for a single day.
Dozens of people, including women and young children, were seen walking ashore after one beach landing on the Kent coast, while more arrived elsewhere.
One caller spoke to LBC's Nick Ferrari giving his view from the 'frontline'.
Geof from Kent explained he lives on the coast and yesterday saw the "police helicopter going up and down, up and down, hovering."
He told Nick he saw "40 odd illegals landed within a few hundred yards of me and were kept in a road, and as late as 4pm yesterday there were still illegals waiting to be picked up."
He said he believed the number of migrants landing was much higher than the 430 being claimed.
"We need to stop them in France and I can't understand why the French aren't doing it."
Migrants make off at speed as dinghy lands at Kent beach
High numbers of crossings have continued this summer despite Home Secretary Priti Patel's vow to make the Channel crossings "unviable".
Also on Monday, plans for sweeping reforms of the asylum system, dubbed the anti-refugee Bill by critics and campaigners, were debated again in Parliament.
In Dungeness in Kent, around 50 people were seen landing on a beach after crossing aboard in a single dinghy.
Some raised their hands in celebration as they stood on the beach, while others sat down on the shingle shoreline amid 24C sunshine.
The large dinghy is believed to have left northern France or Belgium earlier on Monday before crossing the dangerous 21-mile Dover Strait.
The vessel had been watched by the RNLI as it got closer and closer to the coast before eventually landing on the beach at around 1pm.
Among the arrivals were women and children, some too young to walk, and some people had to be supported as they walked on to the beach.
