These two small children were among the latest asylum seekers rescued and brought to the UK.

One is carried by a man and the other is old enough to walk unaided.

A third child, dressed in orange, was also seen carried by another man when the large group landed at Dover yesterday evening (Sunday).

They were picked up at sea by the RNLI and brought into the Western Docks.

Rescued asylum seekers are usually brought to the Tug Haven area for initial interview and processing.

The Home Office has now confirmed that yesterday 87 people had to be rescued or intercepted in three incidents.

Meanwhile French authorities stopped 10 people crossing the Channel in one case yesterday.

The desperate attempts to cross the Channel in small craft have continued despite 27 people drowning when their dinghy capsized off Calais last November 24.

For example on January 4, a total of 66 people, including a baby girl, were brought to Dover in two incidents.

On January 10, 96 people were brought to Dover on board vessels of the Border Force and the RNLI in the early hours in freezing temperatures.

A total 25 people, including two toddlers, arrived in the UK in the early hours of January 12.

More than 28,300 people crossed the Dover Strait aboard small boats in 2021, triple 2020's figure.

Tom Pursglove,Minister for Justice and Tackling Illegal Migration, said: “People fleeing persecution should seek safety in the first safe country they reach and not risk their lives paying criminal gangs to cross the Channel.”

“This Government is reforming our approach to illegal entry to the UK and asylum by making the tough decisions to end the overt exploitation of our laws and its impact on UK taxpayers.

"The public have rightly had enough of the blatant disregard of our immigration laws and we are bringing in necessary long-term changes."

The Nationality and Borders Bill was passed in the House of Commons on December 8, and it aims to firstly introduce a maximum life sentence for those who facilitate illegal entry.

For the first time it will differentiate between those who do and do not come directly, claim without delay and if present unlawfully, can show good cause for that unlawful entry or presence.

The Government says it is also to end, as it sees it, the the "cycle of limitless appeals" by creating a new and expanded one stop process so that claims are made and considered up front.

It will also make it a criminal offence to arrive in the UK illegally, and increase the maximum sentence for illegally entering the UK.

It is in addition to strengthen the powers of the Border Force to stop and redirect vessels and speed up the removal of those with no right to be in the UK by streamlining the appeals and judicial process.

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