Authorities meet a migrant vessel in the Channel yesterday (Image: Sky News )
More than 800 migrants crossed the English Channel in small boats on Saturday, the highest number on a single day so far this year.
Some 872 people crossed on an armada of 15 small vessels, according to the latest provisional Government data. This suggests an average of around 58 people per boat.
The cumulative number of arrivals by small boats in 2023 now stands at a provisional total of 20,973. The previous high for 2023 was when 756 people made crossings on August 10.
The total for the year so far is still lower than this time last year, when 25,000 people had already made the journey. Saturday's arrivals mean 1,172 people made the journey so far this week with crossings recorded on just two out of six days, after 300 migrants arrived on Tuesday.
READ MORE... Furious villagers fear their village is becoming ‘overrun’ with asylum seekers
(File pic) A group of migrants crossing the Channel (Image: PA)
The record high for a single day since current records began in 2018 is still 1,295 on August 22, 2022.
Figures will be published on Monday for any crossings which took place on Sunday. Total arrivals last year were 45,774, compared with the previously documented 45,755, according to the latest available Home Office data.
It comes after the average number of migrants crossing the Channel per boat hit a new monthly high in August, when some 5,369 people made the journey in in 102 boats - an average of around 53 migrants per vessel.
Responding to the number of crossings Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, said: “Rishi Sunak has badly broken his promise on small boats and the Conservatives failure to get any grip has allowed criminal smuggler gangs to take hold on Britain’s borders."
“The Prime Minister should drop his headline-chasing gimmicks and instead back Labour’s plan to stop dangerous Channel crossings by cracking down on criminal gangs, securing a returns deal with Europe, and clearing the asylum backlog which is costing the taxpayer ￡6 million a day.”
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Kilhey Court Hotel in Standish, near Wigan (Image: McDonald Hotels )
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In Wigan a protest is planned by villagers in Standish were the Home Office has earmarked a hotel to house more asylum seekers less than three miles from 270 are already being put up in a Britannia Hotel.
Express.co.uk reported residents were intending on protesting over Home Office plans to convert Kilhey Court Hotel into a venue for people seeking asylum.
Local Labour MP Lisa Nandy has written to Home Secretary Suella Braverman objecting to the plans for the hotel, and she has been joined by local councillors.
One resident, who did not wish to be named, told the Mail Online: “There's just too many of them for the size of the place.
“They have made comments to schoolgirls and the police have been involved. It's diabolical they are putting more migrants here. A lot of women don't feel safe at night and won't go out.”
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