A total 41 asylum seekers made it across the Channel yesterday.

Meanwhile French authorities stopped another 20.

The UK Government says the ones it found were all in a single small boat.

The French maritime authority for the Channel and North Sea, préfecture maritime de la Manche et de la mer du Nord, said that overnight on Thursday and yesterday the asylum seekers it found had their boat in difficulty.

They were rescued and brought back to Calais.

Since the start of this year, 8, 844 people have reached the UK after crossing the Channel in small boats in 2022.

The figures from May 1 to 15 add up to 1,648 people in 69 small boats, according to Ministry of Defence figures.

There were 28,526 people detected arriving on small boats in 2021 compared with 8,466 in 2020, 1,843 in 2019 and 299 in 2018.

The British government now has a policy of deporting illegal immigrants, particularly those crossing the Channel in small boats, to Rwanda.

This is likely to happen to hundreds every year, says Deputy Prime Miniser Dominic Raab.

Last weekend Prime Minister Boris Johnson said 50 asylum seekers had been told they were due on a flight within a fortnight, which would be the end of May, but he anticipated opposition to the move.

Legal challenges are expected.

The deal to move asylum seekers to Rwanda for processing was signed by its government and the UK one in April.

It was described as a "world first" by British Home Secretary Priti Patel.

Asylum seekers who reach Britain are often rescued from their boats in the Channel and are initially landed at Dover Western Docks.

Others have landed by themselves in places such as Kingsdown near Deal and Dungeness in Romney Marsh.

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