A WHOPPING 2,222 small boat migrants have arrived in the past week – equivalent to one every five minutes.

The number of Channel crossings since Labour came to power today surpassed 40,000 after the highest seven-day period since 2021.

Ministers were challenged to declare the influx a public safety crisis after a proportion of grooming gang predators were found to be asylum seekers.

On Tuesday 489 migrants made the perilous journey from French beaches in eight dinghies to continue a busy summer period of arrivals. 

Hapless Calais cops were again seen standing by as the migrants waded into the water to be picked up by smuggling gangs.

Emmanuel Macron has pledged to change the law to let his officers intercept them in the shallows – but Nigel Farage yesterday warned the crisis would continue until Britain acted to reduce its pull factors.

It came as Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood warned the European Convention of Human Rights must be overhauled to restore damaged public trust in the rule of law.

Addressing the Council of Europe, she said there is a “growing perception” that human rights rules are “no longer a shield for the vulnerable, but a tool for criminals to avoid responsibility”.

The Justice Secretary declared that the ECHR “too often protects those who break the rules, rather than those who follow them”.

In May nine countries led by Italy and Denmark wrote a public letter blasting the convention for too often “protecting the wrong people”.  

The Council of Europe, which oversees the ECHR, has said it recognises a need to change.

But in the meantime, ministers have vowed to get a grip over how domestic courts adopt bogus rulings from Strasbourg.

Ms Mahmood said: “If a foreign national commits a serious crime, they should expect to be removed from the country.

“In the UK, we are restoring the balance we pledged at the birth of our Convention: liberty with responsibility, individual rights with the public interest. There must be consequences for breaking the rules.”

In January an Albanian criminal was allowed to stay in the UK because his son wouldn’t eat international varieties of chicken nuggets.

And just last month a Pakistani paedo avoided deportation after claiming he risks being attacked by “religious fanatics” in his homeland.

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp accused the government of siding with “foreign criminals and not the British public”.

He slammed the ECHR for protecting sexual predators over the country’s kids, blasting: “Who is looking out for their rights? Not the Government.”

The Shadow Home Secretary argued the UK should rip up the Human Rights Act when it comes to immigration matters.