A man has been arrested after eight more migrants were rescued in the county this afternoon.

The man has been detained on suspicion of helping asylum seekers cross the English Channel after a boat was found in Dungeness this morning.

Pictures sent to KentOnline show police and immigration officers attending to three suspected migrants in Harden Road in Lydd.

One of the migrants found today was taken to hospital for treatment.

It comes after Border Force was contacted by the coastguard at around 8.20am after they received reports of an unattended inflatable boat at Dungeness.

A Home Office spokesman said: "A search of the local area found eight people.

"Seven of those are now in Border Force care and the eighth has been transferred to hospital.

"A ninth man, who was also found in the area, has been arrested on suspicion of facilitating illegal entry to the UK.

"The incident is currently being investigated by officers from Immigration Enforcement’s Criminal and Financial Investigation team."

A SECAmb spokesman said: "Paramedics were called to Dungeness at approximately 12.20pm today following reports a number of people needed medical assessment having come off a boat.

"We attended the scene and one person was taken to hospital for further treatment.

"The incident was left in the hands of the police and Border Force."

HMS Mersey was circling several miles from the shore between Folkestone and Dungeness this morning, according to marinetraffic.com.

It's the latest in a series of migrant landings in the county since November, including hundreds of men, women and children.

Around 200 suspected migrants were found crossing the Channel over the Christmas period.

It is mainly people identifying as Iranian that have been picked up from boats in the Straits of Dover and off the coasts of Folkestone in recent weeks.

Last week, the Home Secretary Sajid Javid came under fire after appearing to suggest many of those seeking to get to the UK from France were not genuine asylum seekers.

It's after he declared the situation a 'major crisis' at the end of 2018.