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Channel migrants: Four boats stopped in three hours | |
(about 4 hours later) | |
Four boats carrying 39 migrants have been intercepted in the Channel in the space of three hours, the Home Office has confirmed. | |
The first boat carrying nine people was seen at 04:40 GMT, followed by a vessel carrying five at 06:00 GMT. | |
At 07:00 GMT a boat with 11 on board was seen and half an hour later a Border Force vessel and Kent Police dealt with a boat carrying 14 people. | |
All 39 presented themselves as Iranian nationals, a government spokesman said. | |
Coastguards said search and rescue helicopters from Lydd and Lee-on-Solent were deployed to incidents off Kent and Sussex, along with RNLI lifeboats from Dover, Dungeness and Hastings, as well as two Border Force vessels. | |
Kent Police said its officers were called just before 07:30 GMT to a report of migrants on board a vessel and the boat was taken to Dungeness, where the group was handed to immigration officials. | |
The Home Office spokesman said: "Crossing the Channel in a small boat is incredibly dangerous. | |
"Anyone attempting the journey is taking a huge risk with their life and the lives of their loved ones." |
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