HOME SECRETARY Sajid Javid has called on the Navy to help him handle a small number of refugee boats crossing the Dover Strait.

HMS Mersey, an offshore patrol vessel, is reportedly "available and ready” to be deployed.

The situation, involving 220 arrivals since November, was already being dealt with by civilian agencies, and human rights activists had warned Mr Javid not to involve the military.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) announced that it had arrested two suspected people-smugglers.

The NCA styles itself as “Britain’s FBI” and is more secretive than regular police constabularies.

The agency is exempt from Freedom of Information law and claims to only deal with “the most serious threats” to national security.

An NCA spokesperson said it had arrested a 33-year-old Iranian national and a 24-year-old British man in Manchester on Wednesday evening “on suspicion of arranging the illegal movement of migrants across the English Channel into the UK.”