English Channel migrant arrivals pass key milestone as 1k cross in three days

The provisional number of migrant arrivals by sea has now passed 25,000 this year, compared with 45,700 for the whole of 2022

The total number of small boat arrivals so far this year is around 23% below the equivalent number at this point in 2022 (Gareth Fuller/PA) (PA Wire)

More than 25,000 people have been detected crossing the English Channel in small boats so far this year, Home Office figures confirm.

Some 472 people made the crossing on Monday, taking the provisional total for 2023 to 25,330.

There were more than 45,700 arrivals in 2022. There were 28,526 in 2021, compared with 8,466 in 2020, 1,843 in 2019 and 299 in 2018.

On Saturday 537 people made the crossing, with a further 28 on Sunday, meaning more than 1,000 arrivals have been recorded in the past three days.

Nine boats were detected on Monday, which suggests an average of around 52 people crossed the Channel per boat.

The total number of small boat arrivals so far this year is around 23% below the equivalent number at this point last year.

A little more than 33,000 people had made the crossing by October 2 2022, compared with 25,330 detected so far in 2023.

The Home Office reiterated that the “unacceptable” number of people making the crossing is “placing an unprecedented strain on our asylum system”, adding that its priority remains to “stop the boats”, with the Small Boats Operational Command working alongside French authorities and other agencies to disrupt people smugglers.

A spokesperson added: “The Government is going even further through our Illegal Migration Act, which will mean that people arriving in the UK illegally are detained and promptly removed to their country of origin or a safe third country.”

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has made stopping the crossings one of his key pledges for this year.

He said the numbers being lower at this time in the year than they were at the same point in 2022 “didn’t happen by accident” but because “we’re doing a bunch of things”.

“New deal with Albania, tackling crime gangs… my view on this is simple. It should be the British people who decide who comes to our country and not criminal gangs,” he told GB News.

“The numbers this year are down by a fifth – first time that’s happened, that someone’s brought the numbers down. So look, those plans are working.”

But Labour said 32,956 people have made the crossing since Mr Sunak became Prime Minister, continuing a “dismal record of failure”.

The 1,000 arrivals since the start of Tory conference also demonstrate once again that nothing Rishi Sunak or Suella Braverman have done has made the slightest difference

Shadow immigration minister Stephen Kinnock

Shadow immigration minister Stephen Kinnock compared the figure to Boris Johnson’s premiership, saying: “Rishi Sunak promised the British people that he would stop the small boats.

“Yet, within his first year as Prime Minister Sunak has already overseen more than half the Channel crossings that Boris Johnson oversaw during his entire three-year premiership. That is a dismal record of failure.

“The 1,000 arrivals since the start of the Tory conference also demonstrate once again that nothing Rishi Sunak or Suella Braverman have done has made the slightest difference and it remains the case that the number of arrivals on any given day is entirely dictated by weather conditions in the Channel.”