The home secretary, Sajid Javid, has declared the rising number of migrants attempting to cross the English Channel a “major incident”, as campaigners and charities warned of increasing desperation among those attempting to make the journey.

Javid also appointed a gold commander to deal with the growing crisis and asked for an urgent call with his French counterpart to discuss the issue. MPs called for more patrols along the coast.

Two more inflatable boats carrying 12 men from Syria and Iran were intercepted on Friday, adding to the 82 migrants detained trying to cross the Channel since Christmas Day.

At least 250 migrants were intercepted in the Channel between January and November 2018, including 65 people, mainly Iranians, in the last three weeks of November, the Guardian understands.

Yvette Cooper, the chair of the Commons home affairs committee, said: “For families and children to end up in small boats in the Channel in the middle of winter is incredibly dangerous. There is a real risk of tragedy if urgent action isn’t taken. People smuggling gangs offering these precarious journeys for profit are putting lives at risk.

“The British and French authorities have known for some time about the risks posed by criminal gangs of people smugglers along the coast. They have been active in encampments over many years but much more coordinated French and British action is needed to tackle them.”

Diane Abbott MP, the shadow home secretary, said: “These are extremely dangerous circumstances in which people are choosing to cross borders. We have a duty to those at risk in British waters, but we also have a duty to refugees, many of whom are fleeing war, poverty and persecution.

“Our focus needs to be on much better cooperation with the French authorities, and European nations as a whole to create safe and legal routes for those seeking asylum. No one should feel they have no option but to risk their lives in this way.”

The Home Office said Javid had commissioned detailed options from the Border Force about the provision of additional vessels in the Channel, including another cutter, and asked whether it was likely to encourage more people to try to make the crossing rather than act as a deterrent.

The immigration minister Caroline Nokes will visit Border Force officers in Dover on Saturday to discuss the situation on the ground.

Charlie Elphicke, the MP for Dover and Deal who has been vocal in his calls for more Border Force vessels, said: “We are seeing a big increase in numbers as Iranian migrants are paying huge sums to people traffickers to get them across the Channel. The criminal gangs need to be caught and brought to justice before these craft leave the French coast.



“It’s time the Home Office took this problem seriously and stepped up resources along the Kent coast – with more cutters and more patrol vessels. It’s time we invested in stronger borders, all the way along our coast.”

Charities and international humanitarian groups have witnessed an increased number of Iranians trying to make the crossing in recent months. The groups said it was normal to see sudden increases or decreases of certain nationalities.

Caroline Gregory, who works with Calais Action, which has been supporting migrants in northern France for the last three years, said: “This is a fairly new phenomenon because it’s so, so dangerous. I think it’s a sign of increasing desperation … that people are resorting to this.”

Financial circumstances help to determine how individuals travel from France to the UK, she said. Those able to afford to pay smugglers now travel on small boats, but there are still many who attempt to get on to a lorry.

Bridget Chapman, a spokeswoman for the Kent Refugee Action Network (KRAN), which mainly works with unaccompanied minors, said there had been a dramatic rise in need for its services. “Last year we worked with around 300 people and this year it looks like we would have worked with 600,” she said. “We’re forcing people, who have a right to claim asylum, into the most dangerous journey. It’s a miracle no one has died yet making that crossing and I really hope no one does.”

Josh Hallam, a field manager for Help Refugees, who works in northern France, said the conditions in the migrant camps are the worst he has seen. “You’re fluctuating between 1,000 to 2,000 people across [the camps in] Calais and Grande-Synthe,” he said.

Migrants in northern France were living in disused industrial estates and the woods since the Calais refugee camp known as the Jungle was dismantled in 2016, he said. Police have conducted regular raids on the encampments, destroyed tents, disposed of people’s personal belongings, and pepper-sprayed families and unaccompanied minors in a bid to disperse them, he said.

Thangam Debbonaire, a Labour MP and chair of the all-party parliamentary group on refugees, said: “There is currently a global refugee crisis and the UK takes a tiny fraction of the people fleeing war and persecution. In order to share responsibility fairly across the world, we, and other countries, need to take more people by the safe and legal route of resettlement. Unfortunately the US has halved the number of people they will take, and the need is growing.

“Some people are also forced to flee due to other dire circumstances, which demand our attention. If we ignore these problems, we will see desperate people exploited … people crossing the Channel in small boats is just one example of the perilous situations people are forced into.”



