Photographs taken on Tuesday afternoon captured the moment an RNLI lifeboat carrying a group of some 20 or more asylum seekers arrived at a beach in Dungeness, Kent.
In January, about 250 Indian migrants entered the UK by this means, outnumbering the 233 who arrived via small boats in the first nine months of last year, according to a report.
Sources in the Border Force say that as many as 80,000 migrants could make the dangerous journey across the Channel in 2023 - up from 45,000 last year.