Bishop of Dover calls for kindness as figures show influx of lone child refugees while Javid faces calls to deploy Royal Navy

The Church of England has urged greater compassion in the migration debate as new figures revealed an influx of lone child refugees among the boatloads of people crossing the Channel.

As Sajid Javid faced calls by Tory MPs to deploy the Royal Navy to stop migrants reaching the UK, the Right Rev Trevor Willmott, bishop of Dover, said the home secretary needed to remember that those attempting the perilous crossing were people in need.

“It is crucial that we all remember that we are dealing with human beings here,” said the bishop, speaking with the backing of the church. “Across the nation, we have been celebrating the season of hope and goodwill as we remember Christ’s birth – let’s not forget so soon that every person is precious.”

On Sunday, six Iranian men were found on a Kent beach after crossing the Channel from France. The group were handed over to immigration authorities after arriving in Kingsdown, near Deal.

Javid, who has cut short his family holiday to deal with the situation, escalated the government’s response after 12 Channel crossings were made by 89 migrants in four days. Since the start of November, 221 migrants are known to have attempted to cross the Channel to England.

The rising number of boat crossings has prompted an increase in the number of unaccompanied child refugees to levels not recorded since the migrant camp in Calais was dismantled in October 2016, say local charities.

One specialist facility that cares for unaccompanied minors, the Millbank Centre in Ashford, Kent, said it was caring for more than twice the usual level of occupants.

Razia Shariff, chief executive officer of Kent Refugee Action Network, said there were between 40 to 50 minors, largely Iranian and Iraqi, being housed at its centre, compared with its usual level of just below 20.

“It [had] gradually petered down from 2015-16 to a standard level, but in the last two months it’s just gone up again,” said Shariff.

The charity Refugee Council, which runs a reception centre for lone child refugees in Dover, Kent, said that the number of unaccompanied minors had risen significantly last month.

The centre, a safe space for child refugees at Britain’s busiest passenger port, recorded 21 unaccompanied children arriving in Kent in one week in mid-November, although the weekly total has subsequently fallen. In total, 31 lone child refugees arrived in Kent during November and another 13 children have so far been looked after at the Dover facility during December.

On Saturday, immigration minister Caroline Nokes travelled to the port and met its Conservative MP, Charlie Elphicke, who has called on the authorities to “get a grip” and called for more patrol boats in the Channel.

Javid has called the rise in arrivals a “major incident”. Yet, during the Dover visit, Nokes and Elphicke appeared to disagree on a way forward. The minister waved away demands for more patrol vessels stating: “It is feasible that, were we to put out additional craft, they might act as a magnet – encouraging people to make a perilous crossing.”

Elphicke, though, was undeterred, saying: “I can’t actually understand why people would say these border cutters do a good job in the Mediterranean, but would do a bad job in the English Channel.”

The UN’s migration agency yesterday called on the government to pursue a proportionate response to the arrivals, stressing that, in global terms, the numbers attempting to cross the Channel remained very small.

Leonard Doyle, spokesperson for the International Organisation for Migration, said: “People seem to criticise migration because it’s easy to do and it’s easy to stir up passions but, actually, these are really small numbers if you compare them to what other European countries are going through.”

Others urged the government to adopt a more “humane” approach. Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesperson Ed Davey said it was important to “ensure safe routes to sanctuary in Britain for those forced out of their homes, whether by war in Syria or persecution in Iran”.

Sarah Jones, Labour MP and member of the home affairs committee, said a broader approach was required. “If we could do something to tackle the fact that more people are on the move across the globe than at any time in our history, we might actually stop this human tragedy,” she said.

The recent rise in child refugees reaching southern England follows Home Office data showing that during the third quarter of the year, July to September, 799 UK asylum applications were made by unaccompanied children compared with 573 the previous quarter.

The 799 figure is the second highest quarter total recorded during the past five years, second only to the period following the 2016 destruction of the migrant camp in Calais, when 1,176 child refugees arrived in the UK.

Experts believe the rise in boat crossings is a response to aggressive tactics by French police that include routinely destroying makeshift refugee camps.

Maurice Wren, head of the Refugee Council, said: “The fact that people are boarding flimsy boats to cross one of the world’s busiest and most dangerous shipping lanes highlights the sense of fear and hopelessness that is gripping so many of the people stuck in northern France.

“Recent reports suggest that armed police are forcibly clearing and levelling the makeshift camps along the French coast, with the entirely predictable consequence that desperate people are again turning to smugglers who they see as offering their only hope of reaching safety.”

He said the UK government needed to begin offering “more legal and dependable routes” for child refugees stranded in Europe.