Fewer arrivals overall
The council's figures put the number of children making the journey unaccompanied at more than 200 a month. Most traveled by boat, although a small number were smuggled aboard ferries inside trucks.
The broader trend is different. Home Office data reported by BBC News show that 20,935 people reached the UK in small boats from France between January 1 and October 18, 2026, down 43% from the corresponding period in 2025.
Children under 18 accounted for about 15% of small boat arrivals in the year ending June 2026, according to Home Office statistics summarized by the House of Commons Library. Adult men made up 72% and adult women 13%. Those proportions have changed little since 2018.
Separate figures concern age assessments at the border. More than 6,400 migrants who said they were children underwent assessments in the year ending March 2026; 43% were found to be adults, according to Home Office data reported by the BBC. A government inspection also identified errors in both directions: adults classified as children and children classified as adults.
Children waiting near Dunkirk
Dozens of children were waiting this week at Loon Plage, a migrant camp outside Dunkirk, for traffickers' boats bound for Dover. Among them was a three-year-old boy in yellow rain boots, photographed laughing and splashing in puddles on Wednesday morning. Better weather was expected to allow crossings over the weekend.
Hundreds of people live at the camp in blue bell tents provided by charities. Residents use fires for warmth, while orange life jackets purchased at sports stores or camp stalls hang from nearby trees, ready for a quick departure to the beaches. Some adults had babies in their arms or strollers; many other children appeared to have no parents with them.
At midday Wednesday, a journalist following the migrants watched 400 people leave in three groups. They traveled by public bus to Gravelines and walked to its railway station, with the tired toddler riding on a man's shoulders.
The groups gathered on the platform, then took a train to Calais and changed platforms for a service toward Boulogne and its long stretches of flat beach. During the journey, trafficking gang members concealed their faces from photographers with masks, hoods and scarves.
Observers cited in the Daily Mail report described the number of children in traffickers' hands as unprecedented and expressed concern for minors traveling without adult protection.
Care after arrival in Dover
Children arriving alone by boat are brought to the Kent Intake Unit on a hill near Dover's port, where social workers look after them. On Thursday morning, a Border Force officer carried a baby wearing white socks ashore; no parent was visible.
Kent County Council initially houses unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in reception and safe care centers because they arrive in the county, according to The Week. Responsibility is also shared through the National Transfer Scheme, established in 2016 to encourage local authorities throughout the UK to care for these children.
The latest Home Office figures put accommodation and support for an unaccompanied migrant child at £143 per night, or about £52,000 annually. The Daily Mail report estimated that, if the three-year-old at Loon Plage reached Britain, supporting him for the 15 years until adulthood would cost more than £780,000.
Kent's dispute over funding
The cost of care has also prompted a political dispute in Kent. In March 2026, the county council's Reform UK leadership sought to declare an "illegal migration emergency," BBC News reported.
Its motion said the expense of supporting unaccompanied asylum-seeking children up to age 25 placed a "huge strain" on the county. It called for more government funding and an end to small boat arrivals. Opposition politicians and the charity Care4Calais criticized the language as alarmist.
