About 600 people succeeded in making the perilous crossing on Wednesday despite the risk of death involved, the Home Office has said.

It comes as Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced controversial plans to fly asylum seekers to Rwanda for processing in an attempt to tackle small boat crossings in the Channel.

Arrivals this week have seen women and young children among those coming into Dover aboard Border Force vessels and an RNLI lifeboat.

More people - wrapped up against the April chills after navigating the narrow sea between Britain and France - have been arriving on Thursday amid a busy week for crossings.

While the Home Office has yet to provide official figures for how many people arrived on Wednesday and Thursday, the latest arrivals are believed to have sent the total for 2022 above 5,000, according to data compiled by Sky News.

This year's total so far presents a significant uptick on the same point in 2021, when just over 1,480 people had reached UK shores - data from the PA news agency shows.

Some 28,526 people crossed the Channel in small boats last year, according to official figures, but this is expected to almost double in 2022, according to a union representing Border Force workers.

The government's estimate of nearly 60,000 arrivals was made before Russia invaded Ukraine, sparking a huge refugee crisis in eastern Europe.

Over the past few years the Home Office has repeatedly vowed to make crossing the Dover Strait in dinghies "unviable".

The increase in crossings - with more and more people being packed aboard often unseaworthy boats - has alarmed charities and aid organisations who have called for safe and legal routes.

Early analysis of crossings in 2022 by Sky News shows that on average more than 30 people are now travelling aboard each small boat making the perilous journey - up from around 27 people last year and a huge rise on 13 in 2020.

Louise Calvey, head of services and safeguarding at Refugee Action, said the government's treatment of refugees is "as shameful as it is incompetent".

She added: "The nasty policies that force refugees to risk their lives in a boat to claim asylum here are the same that leave Ukrainians facing mountains of paperwork and Afghans left in hotels for months with no end in sight.

"In their response to the Ukraine crisis the UK public has sent a loud and clear message to ministers that refugees must be treated with humanity not hostility.

"It's time the government listened and created more routes to safety for people fleeing war and persecution, such as a long-term commitment to resettle 10,000 refugees a year."

The refugee crisis sparked by the conflict in Ukraine has led to questions over how the UK has responded to those fleeing conflict in eastern Europe compared to other theatres of war around the world.

Clare Moseley, founder of migrant aid organisation Care4Calais, told Sky News that the government's response to Ukraine shows that refugees needn't have to attempt to cross the Channel in boats.

However she questioned why such a scheme has not been made available to those her organisation cares for in northern France, many of whom have fled countries like Syria, Afghanistan and Iran.

She said: "Now we have got just the most ultimate proof for that, which is a visa system for people to get to the UK without risking their lives.

"It's a system for people to cross the Channel safely. Now we should not have anybody risking their lives in boats and lorries."

Despite the increasing numbers, the UK's small boat arrivals are a fraction of the number of people arriving in Europe.

At least 123,318 people arrived in Europe via the Mediterranean by land and sea in 2021, according to data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).