Four boats carrying 39 migrants have been intercepted in the Channel in the space of three hours, the Home Office has confirmed.
The first boat carrying nine people was seen at 04:40 GMT, followed by a vessel carrying five at 06:00 GMT.
At 07:00 GMT a boat with 11 on board was seen and half an hour later a Border Force vessel and Kent Police dealt with a boat carrying 14 people.
All 39 presented themselves as Iranian nationals, a government spokesman said.
Coastguards said search and rescue helicopters from Lydd and Lee-on-Solent were deployed to incidents off Kent and Sussex, along with RNLI lifeboats from Dover, Dungeness and Hastings, as well as two Border Force vessels.
