91Èȱ¬

A record number of unaccompanied migrant children have been arriving in the UK after crossing the English Channel in small boats, according to recent figures.

Unaccompanied means the children are making the journey without either of their parents.

This route is often used by migrants who have made it to mainland Europe but want to travel on to the UK and reach the port of Dover in Kent, South East England.

A record 235 people made the crossing on Thursday 6 August, with Kent County Council saying it took 23 under-18s into care on Friday 7 August alone.

Migrants have different reasons for trying to come to the UK - some are asylum seekers, who flee war or persecution in their home country.

Others are coming to the UK illegally in hope of finding a better life.

Crossing seas can be very dangerous and many migrants have to pay large amounts of money to criminal gangs to ship them over the channel.

The Channel these migrants are attempting to cross is one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, the boats people are making the journeys in are often very small and unsafe and the water is very cold.

This is a change, as in recent years most migrants have arrived in lorries crossing in ferries. But now some migrants are crossing the channel in very small boats.

Police have said that this journey is like trying to cross a busy motorway on foot and the 91Èȱ¬ Office says there is "concern that it is only a matter of time before people lose their lives" because the crossing is so dangerous.

Under international rules, a 'migrant' is a person who moves from one place to another in order to find better work or living conditions.

In the UK an 'asylum seeker' means a person who has applied to be let into the country because they say they're facing harassment due to their race, religion, nationality, political belief, or membership of a particular social group.

All children will need to apply for asylum to be given the right to stay here. If they arrive with their parents then their parents will include their children in their asylum claim application. Their parents will then be given a small amount of money to help look after the child. The child will also be given a place at a school while their parents finish their application to stay in the UK.

If the children are alone then the local authority of the area they arrive in has to look after them and give them somewhere to live. They will then be given help to try to get them in touch with family members who may already be in the UK. The Refugee Council say that "To date in December, we have welcomed 13 separated children to our Dover centre".

Although some children are able to travel with their families, some had to leave their parents behind in the countries where they're from, or others may have got separated from them on the long journey.

In 2016, a Unicef report said that children make up almost half of all refugees.

Many come from countries like Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq where many homes have been destroyed and people made homeless due to fighting. Last year many migrants came to the UK from Iran.

The 91Èȱ¬ Office says least 3,950 migrants have reached the UK in small boats this year, but the UK government are trying to stop this and return them to the first safe country they arrived in saying they should make their asylum claim there.

If children have family members living in the UK they can have their claim transferred here instead.

But there are many children who arrive in the UK who do not have family living there and so end up being taken into care.

Kent County Council said it had taken 65 children into its care in May, 85 in June, and 70 in July because they arrived without an adult to look after them.

In 2016 we spoke to Ruth who was a child refugee from Eritrea. She made the same journey across the Channel but was hidden in a lorry, rather than in a small boat. She explains what it was like for her.

Since January 2019, at least 5,800 people have arrived into the UK on small boats and more than 155 people who entered have been returned to Europe.

The 91Èȱ¬ Secretary Priti Patel says she was working to prevent boats from leaving France as well as stopping and returning those attempting to make a crossing.

She has called the number of crossings was "shameful" and "unacceptably high".

The government said planes are due to return migrants to Europe, with a flight taking up to 20 people on Wednesday.

The migrants will be returned to France and Germany after those countries agreed to consider their asylum claims.

The 91Èȱ¬ Office has refused to confirm the number of children who have arrived in the UK, but Roger Gough, leader of Kent County Council said the council was already "under some considerable pressure" due to the numbers of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.

In the future it may also become harder for the UK to send migrants back to France.

That's because "Dublin III" - the agreement that allows the UK the send people to the country they first arrived in to claim asylum - will end at the end of the Brexit transition period next January.

For the arrangement to continue, the UK and the EU would need to agree a similar deal before then.