The Home Office has issued a stern warning after a further eight migrants were today rescued crossing the Channel.

Border Force was alerted to a small boat travelling towards the Kent coast at about 6.20am.

Officers were deployed on the Border Forcer cutter, Seeker, and the eight men on board were transferred onto it.

They were brought into Dover, where they were medically assessed and found to be in good health.

The men - seven of whom presented themselves as Iranian and one as an Afghan national - were then handed to immigration officials for interviewing.

It has sparked the Home Office to renew its warning about the risks to health and life.

A Home Office spokesman said: “Anyone crossing the Channel in a small boat is taking a huge risk with their life.

“Since the Home Secretary declared a major incident in December, two cutters have returned to UK waters from overseas operations, we have agreed a joint action plan with France and increased activity out of the Joint Coordination and Information Centre in Calais.

“It is an established principle that those in need of protection should claim asylum in the first safe country they reach and since January more than 30 people who arrived illegally in the UK in small boats have been returned to elsewhere in Europe.”

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