Channel migrants (Image: STEVE FINN PHOTOGRAPHY)
Channel migrant crossings this year have passed 5,500 in record time despite Labour’s attempts to crack down on people-smugglers, figures show. Some 5,512 migrants have arrived in the UK since the beginning of the year.
This is a faster rate than in any of the seven previous years since the first small boats crossed in 2018. The number is almost a quarter higher than at this stage last year, when it stood at 4,306, and 36% higher than at this point in 2023, when it was 3,683. It is also greater than in 2022, the record year for overall crossings, in which 45,774 migrants reached the UK.
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At this point in 2022, some 3,836 people had crossed – 56% lower than so far this year.
Some 241 people made the journey in four boats on Saturday while more continue to arrive today.
It is thought there have been more “red days” so far this year, when sea and weather conditions are more conducive to crossings.
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The highest number arriving in one day this year so far stands at 592 people, crossing the Channel in 11 boats on March 2.
Among those being brought ashore at Dover by a Border Force vessel on Sunday were men and women, all wearing life jackets and some wrapped in blankets in the rainy conditions.
The French coastguard confirmed two migrants died in two days attempting to cross the Channel on Wednesday and Thursday.
One person died after being pulled from the water while the other person died after trying to cross in an overloaded boat, despite rescue efforts to save them.
The UK signed a “road-map” agreement with France earlier this month aimed at bolstering co-operation to tackle people smuggling across the Channel.
The Government’s new Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill also continues through Parliament with plans to introduce new criminal offences and hand counter terror-style powers to police and enforcement agencies to crack down on people smuggling gangs.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “We all want to end dangerous small boat crossings, which threaten lives and undermine our border security.
A group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, from a Border Force vessel f (Image: PA)
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“The people-smuggling gangs do not care if the vulnerable people they exploit live or die, as long as they pay. We will stop at nothing to dismantle their business models and bring them to justice.”
A Number 10 spokesman said on Friday: “We’ve acknowledged that there is a flow of migrants into this country by illegal means on small boats and we’ve seen a number of incidents in this week in French waters.
“That’s why this Government has put forward a serious credible plan to finally restore order to the chaos we inherited in our asylum system.”
Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said: “This has been the worst ever start to a year for illegal channel crossings. Labour has completely lost control of our borders. Their claim to be smashing the gangs has now been exposed as laughable.
“Extremists and terrorist sympathisers are being allowed to enter the country without control. The Government must urgently implement a removals deterrent so the illegal immigrants in France do not bother attempting the crossing.
“It was a catastrophic mistake to cancel the Rwanda removals scheme before it even started. The truth is Labour has no interest in taking the tough measures needed to control our borders. They’re only interested in kowtowing to human rights lawyers.”
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Earlier this month, the UK signed a “road map” agreement with France, aimed at bolstering co-operation to tackle people-smuggling across the Channel.
The French government is preparing to lift a ban on stopping migrant boats at sea for the first time in an effort to reduce illegal crossings.
Bruno Retailleau, the French interior minister, said on Thursday that he was seeking a law change to allow migrants to be tackled out of boats in shallow water. The rule change will also allow police to use their own boats for the first time to take on people-smugglers carrying migrants to the UK on overloaded vessels.