UK borders are secure, minister says after migrant boat reaches coast undetected

The UK’s borders are secure, a minister has insisted after a migrant boat reached the Kent coast without being intercepted.

Five people were detained and passed to Border Security Command after the dinghy made it to shore at Folkestone on Monday – the first undetected landing for a year.

Defence minister Luke Pollard dismissed suggestions the Government had lost control of the border.

Defence minister Luke Pollard (Andrew Matthews/PA)

PA Wire

“Our borders are secure, but we want to make them stronger,” he told LBC Radio on Tuesday.

Asked how the boat slipped through, Mr Pollard said a Home Office investigation was under way to determine what had happened, without going into detail.

He also said: “We’re aware that the boat that got through, everyone has been detained on it.

“But because crossings are the lowest in six years, because asylum backlog is being cut, and because we’re closing asylum hotels, we know what we’re doing is working.

“But where there are challenges in that system, we need to get it right because this is not just a matter of public confidence. This is a clear political objective that we have set as a Government to secure our borders, and where there are gaps in that, we will close them.”

The thousands of migrants crossing the Channel are usually brought to shore by Border Security Command or RNLI boats.

No small boat arrivals to the UK coast without an escort have been officially recorded since September 6 2025.

A group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to the Border Security Command compound (Gareth Fuller/PA)

PA Wire

On Monday, a Kent Police spokesperson said: “We were made aware by the Coastguard of an incident in the Channel involving a vessel at 9.26am on Monday September 21 2026.

“Patrols attended and five people were detained and passed to Border Security Command officers.”

A Home Office spokesperson said: “This was an isolated and rare incident. Officers responded quickly, detaining five individuals.

“There is an ongoing investigation and it would be inappropriate to comment further.”

Some 17,480 migrants have arrived after crossing the Channel by boat so far this year, including 5,011 since Andy Burnham became Prime Minister.