Fourteen migrants rescued from Dover shipping lane Published duration 11 December 2018

media caption The dinghy appeared to be taking in water as it approached the coast

Fourteen migrants have been rescued from two dinghies in the Channel and brought ashore at Dover.

Coastguards and a lifeboat crew were called at about 03:30 GMT to a small boat, in the Dover Strait - the world's busiest shipping lane.

The Home Office said the boat contained five men and one woman, who claimed to be Iranian nationals.

A second boat with eight men, all saying they were Iranian, was intercepted at about 12:00.

More than 100 migrants, the majority of whom say they are Iranian, crossed the Channel towards Kent in November.

Warnings have gone out from the UK authorities about the dangers of taking small boats on the Dover-Calais route.

A Home Office spokesman said the coastguard contacted the Border Force in the early hours. A cutter and a lifeboat were sent to assist a dinghy with six people on board.

They were brought back to Dover onboard the cutter.

"They received a medical assessment and have now been transferred to immigration officials for interview," he added.

At about midday the coastguard reported a second boat off the coast of Dover with eight men on board.

A Border Force cutter and coastal patrol vessel were sent to help a rigid-hulled inflatable boat (RHIB), The Home Office said.

"The men, who all presented themselves as Iranian nationals, have been brought to shore", the spokesman said.

The have been passed to the immigration service, he said.

image caption The six people on the boat claimed to be Iranian

Ingrid Parrot

French border official

Our greatest fear is, on the one hand, a collision that leads to a loss of human life and, what's more, an accident at sea that we need to assist with.

On the other hand, our other fear is having injured people at sea and bodies on the beaches. We do not want it to come to that.

The BBC has confirmed that at least 126 migrants have entered British waters since 3 November , with the majority presenting themselves as Iranian.

Miodrag Ćakić, chief executive of Refugee Aid Serbia, which monitors migration through the Balkans, said Iranians heading for the UK had entered the EU via Serbia.

He said they were among the thousands who flew into Serbia after the country began offering visa-free access to Iranians in August 2017 in a bid to increase tourism between the two countries.

A spokeswoman for the Kent Refugee Action Network said the number of Iranians trying to enter the UK was unusually high.

"We haven't had this increase for some time. Iranians have always previously come in small numbers," she said.