Dozens of migrants cross Channel on dinghies as RNLI lifeboat crews are scrambled to save group off the coast of Kent after people smugglers took advantage of calm weather conditions

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Emergency services scrambled to rescue migrants crossing the Channel as people-smugglers took advantage of calm weather conditions to traffic asylum seekers from Europe to Britain.

Photographs taken on Tuesday afternoon captured the moment an RNLI lifeboat carrying a group of some 20 or more people arrived at a beach in Dungeness, Kent.

A HM Coastguard spokesperson said it 'has been co-ordinating a search and rescue response to an incident involving small boats off Kent, working with Border Force, Kent Police and other partners'.

In Dungeness, a group wearing red life jackets disembarked the vessel via a ladder before they were led up the pebbled beach by Border Force agents. They were then searched and their possessions were bagged up before they boarded a coach, a photographer at the scene said.

Among those rescued, a man was seen grinning and later flashing a two fingered 'V sign', which can mean peace or victory, as the procession was led up the beach. In another photo, a young woman huddled in a blue blanket pulled close to her face.

The latest Home Office data up to Monday shows that no small boat crossings had been recorded since March 29.

A group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dungeness, Kent by the RNLI

This came following a small boat suspected to have 20 people on board was involved in an incident in the Channel

The total number of migrants who crossed the Channel to the UK in the first three months of this year was 17 per cent below the figure for the same period in 2022.

PA news agency analysis of Government figures shows 3,793 migrants made the journey from France by the end of March 2023, compared with 4,548 in the first quarter of last year.

Last month 840 people arrived on the south coast after crossing the Channel - just over a quarter of the 3,066 recorded in March 2022 - and only slightly higher than the figure for March 2021 (831).

According to Home Office data, 1,180 people made the journey in January this year, followed by 1,773 in February. This is compared with 1,339 in January 2022 and 143 a month later.

It comes as Home Secretary Suella Braverman could face a legal challenge over her plan to house migrants on a floating accommodation barge.

Tory-run Dorset Council is opposed to the use of Portland Port as the site, and local Conservative MP Richard Drax was working to get the plan 'consigned to the dustbin'.

The Bibby Stockholm vessel, which will reportedly cost taxpayers more than £20,000 a day, could accommodate more than 500 migrants.

Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick announced last week the proposals to house asylum seekers in disused military bases, with a third site in Bexhill, East Sussex.

He also confirmed that 3,700 people would be housed at RAF Wethersfield in Essex and RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire.

The Home Secretary has also faced questions about when flights sending migrants to Rwanda could take off.

It is thought that people smugglers took advantage of the break in poor weather conditions

The migrants are said to have arrived in Dover before midday today

On Sunday, she appeared to downplay suggestions that the stalled policy of deporting asylum seekers could begin this summer.

A Home Office spokesperson said: 'The unacceptable number of people risking their lives by making these dangerous crossings is placing an unprecedented strain on our asylum system.

'Our priority is to stop this illegal trade, and our Small Boats Operational Command is working alongside our French partners and other agencies to disrupt the people smugglers.

'The government has gone further by introducing legislation which will ensure that those people arriving in the UK illegally are detained and promptly removed to their country of origin or a safe third country.'