Home Office officials tonight confirmed reports that 13 migrants were recovered from The Channel in an inflatable boat.

They were identified as men, women and children, who declared themselves as Iranian, Egyptian and Iraqi.

They were picked up from their rigid-hulled inflatable boat (RHIB) in the Channel by a Border Force cutter.

Details of the incident first began to emerge this afternoon.

The Home Office said those on board were transferred to the cutter and will now be medically assessed before being interviewed by immigration officials.

Over the last year there has been an ongoing trend of migrants trying to reach the UK by small craft rather than the long-practised method of hiding inside lorries.

The desperation of these people has at times led to tragedy.

Only last Monday two young men believed to by trying to cross the Channel were found dead and washed up on a beach in Le Touquet, France.

They were believed to be a Kurdish boy, aged 17 and an Iraqi man, aged 22.

An inflatable dinghy was found nearby, News 24 reported.

The first confirmed death from a migrant crossing came in August when a woman fell from a small craft off Ramsgate.

Other incidents over the last year have happened in the coastal areas of Dover, Deal, Folkestone and Romney Marsh.

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