Two people die in small boat Channel crossing as more than 700 make journey

More than 700 people arrived in the UK on 11 small boats on Sunday

Two people died attempting to cross the Channel on Sunday, while more than 700 migrants made the journey.

More than 50 people were rescued from the same boat after it sent a distress signal to the local coastguard in French waters.

New government data released on Monday showed that 703 people arrived in the UK after making the dangerous journey across the Channel on Sunday. It is the highest number of daily crossings since Sir Keir Starmer became prime minister.

The highest number of daily arrivals this year was 882 people on 18 June under the Conservative government.

A group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, from a Border Force vessel following a small boat incident in the Channel. (PA)

A total of 1,172 people arrived on small boats last week, up on 713 people the week before.

The latest figures take the provisional total for the year so far to 18,342 – 13 per cent higher than this time last year but three per cent lower than in 2022.

The high numbers in 2022 were partly down to a large number of Albanians making the journey.

Charities working with migrants at the French border said that 31 people have died this year attempting to make the crossing. This compares with 12 known deaths in 2023, not-for-profit organisation Utopia 56 said.

The French authorities said that they responded after a migrant boat got into difficulty in the water off the coast of Calais on Sunday. When emergency services arrived at the scene, they found people in the water and a helicopter hoisted one unconscious person out to transfer them to hospital.

They were later declared dead, along with another person who had been recovered unconscious by a search and rescue boat.

Shadow home secretary James Cleverly said that the new Labour government “need to get a grip and fast” on the number of Channel crossings. Responding to Monday’s figures, he said: “Since Labour have ditched our deterrent, more and more boats are crossing the channel with more and more people in them.

“They’ve sent the wrong signal, throwing the doors open instead of doing what is necessary to stop the dangerous crossings.”

A Downing Street spokesperson denied that there was a link between scrapping the Tories’ Rwanda deportation plan and the migration figures. They said: “We’ve been very clear in the weeks leading up to the Summer that it is a challenging time and we expect to see increases before we see improvements.

“We know it is in these months that the criminal gangs seek to exploit people. We saw that yesterday with further deaths in the Channel. That’s why it’s important that we work to smash the gangs.”

Earlier this year The Independent reported that migrants were taking longer journeys across the Channel because they were launching boats from beaches further along the French coast in a bid to evade police.

Migrants said the increased crackdown from French police was making them more desperate to reach the UK.

The mother of a 21-year-old woman who died after being crushed in an overcrowded boat trying to cross the Channel said on Sunday that the family will have to attempt the journey again.

Amira Al Shammari, 52, who is in Calais, told PA news agency: “We have no options here, where should we go?

“Who’s going to give us the protection? We have to do that again.”

Her daughter Dina died in a crush as the family were attempting the crossing on 28 July 28. The family of six arrived in France on 1 July and had attempted the crossing five times before Dina died.

Ms Al Shammari said: “The boat was so crowded. Dina was the first one, she ran to the boat because she wanted to go to the UK as soon as possible. They followed her and, just like squeezing her from all over the place. When squeezing her she wasn’t able to breathe, and she started shouting.”

The family, who are Kuwaiti Bidoon, a stateless Arab minority, fled the Gulf state in 2018.