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| Two held over English Channel migrant crossings | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| An Iranian national and a British man have been arrested on suspicion of arranging the "illegal movement of migrants" across the English Channel. | An Iranian national and a British man have been arrested on suspicion of arranging the "illegal movement of migrants" across the English Channel. |
| The National Crime Agency said the 33-year-old Iranian and 24-year-old Briton were held in Manchester. | |
| It comes after the government redeployed patrol vessels from the Mediterranean amid concerns over a rising number of crossings. | It comes after the government redeployed patrol vessels from the Mediterranean amid concerns over a rising number of crossings. |
| A total of 239 people have reached the UK by boat since November. | |
| The NCA announced the arrests in a statement, adding: "As the investigation is ongoing, we are unable to comment further at this time." | |
| On Wednesday, Home Secretary Sajid Javid was in Dover visiting Border Force staff patrolling the Channel. | |
| Twelve migrants were found on the Kent coast last week and Mr Javid defended escalating the UK's response, saying 80% of the 539 people who had attempted to cross in small boats in 2018, had done so since October. | |
| French police said they stopped 14 migrants attempting to cross the Channel from Boulogne on Tuesday, the latest in a growing number of people intercepted by the French authorities in the past month. | |
| As part of a joint action plan agreed with France last week, Mr Javid - who cut short his holiday to deal with the issue - has ordered two UK Border Force boats to be redeployed from overseas to patrol the Channel. | |
| Only one of the five Border Force cutters - specialist boats which the force describes as being capable of rescuing several migrant boats at the same time - had been working in the Straits of Dover. | |
| The two being brought back are currently in the Mediterranean, where they have been taking part in Operation Frontex, the pan-European effort to deal with much larger migration flows from North Africa and the Middle East, to Italy and Greece. |