UK border police have been responding to a number of boats carrying migrants across the Channel.
Authorities assisted with 13 incidents off the Kent coast on Saturday morning, HM Coastguard said.
The Maritime and Coastguard Agency said it used RNLI lifeboats from Dover, Dungeness and Rye to respond to the small-boat crossings, as well as coastguard rescue teams from Folkestone, Langdon and Rye Bay.
Images of men being given blankets by emergency service workers on Winchelsea Beach in east Sussex have been shared on Twitter.
A spokesman for Kent police said they had provided support to the Border Force. The Home Office said 74 people, including men, women and children, have undergone medical examinations. Their nationalities are now being determined.
In December, the home secretary, Sajid Javid, declared the rising number of migrants attempting to cross the Channel a “major incident”. More than 500 people attempted to travel to the UK on small boats last year. Of these, 80% made their attempts in the last three months of the year.
The Conservative MP for Dover and Deal, Charlie Elphicke, said it was “a record number of boats in a single day”, adding: “This crisis was meant to have been dealt with at Christmas, yet numbers continue to rise. It looks set to surge to record levels through the summer. The Home Office needs to get a grip on this crisis.”
He tweeted: “This is about much more than simply border security. It is about the exploitation of vulnerable people by criminal trafficking gangs – gangs that Britain and France must work together to catch and bring to justice.”
Bridget Chapman, a spokeswoman for the Kent Refugee Action Network, which has supported asylum seekers who crossed the Channel on a boat, said: “It’s an extremely dangerous crossing, you have to be desperate to do it. But if you had to make it, you would make it on a day like today,” adding that the water was relatively calm and warm on Saturday morning.
Chapman called on the government to ease the passage of asylum seekers keen to make a life for themselves in the UK. “I think the government response has been playing to the gallery. They know that these people coming are mostly Kurdish, they are from a oppressed minority and will have a very good claim for asylum.
“They should be setting up an office in France to process people’s applications so they can make that journey safely. There’s no need for people to be risking their lives like this.”
An HM Coastguard spokeswoman said it was “committed to safeguarding life around the seas and coastal areas of this country”. She added: “We are only concerned with preservation of life, rescuing those in trouble and bringing them safely back to shore, where they will be handed over to the relevant partner emergency services or authorities.”
Javid said: “The number of migrants crossing the Channel overnight is deeply concerning and I’m receiving regular updates on the situation. Those who choose to make this dangerous journey across one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world are putting their lives in grave danger – and I will continue to do all I can to stop them.
“It is an established principle that those in need of protection should claim asylum in the first safe country they reach, and since January more than 30 people who arrived illegally in the UK in small boats have been returned to Europe. We will continue to seek to return anyone who has entered the UK illegally.”
