Channel migrants: 17 people enter UK on two small boats

(BBC) Seventeen migrants reached the UK after crossing the English Channel on two small boats, the Home Office said.

A further 78 people were picked up by the French authorities on Thursday after trying to make the cross-Channel journey on four boats.

One woman was found unconscious on one vessel spotted by a ferry.

Immigration minister Chris Philp said migrants “should be claiming asylum in the first safe country they reach.”

It is thought a drop in wind speeds overnight led to the attempts to reach UK shores, after bad weather had made crossing the Channel by small boat impossible for more than a week.

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