No Channel crossings for longest period in five years
The provisional annual total for the year, 29,437, is 36% lower than the record 45,774 crossings for the whole of 2022.
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Your support makes all the difference.Migrants have not ventured across Channel to the UK for 26 days – the longest gap in small boat crossings for five years.
Arrivals have not been recorded since December 16, according to Home Office figures, with poor weather conditions potentially contributing to the lack of activity at sea.
This is longer than the 25 consecutive days without any crossings from February 8 to March 3 2020.
It means the latest break in migrants attempting the journey is now the longest of its kind since a hiatus of 48 days between September 2 and October 19 2018, PA analysis of Government data shows.
The number of migrants crossing the Channel has fallen year-on-year for the first time since current records began in 2018, with the total arrivals in 2023 down more than a third on 2022.
For the first time in five years, no Channel crossings took place on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day or Boxing Day.
The provisional annual total for the year, 29,437, is 36% lower than the record 45,774 crossings for the whole of 2022. But it is still the second highest annual total on record, above the figure for 2021 (28,526).
Home Secretary James Cleverly insisted the weather was not a “contributory factor” to falling migrant crossings when questioned last week, highlighting how the number of good sailing days recorded by officials for the year was only four fewer than the previous period.
The decrease was instead because of co-operation with Europe, disrupting the supply chain of engines and boats, and “going after the money of these people smugglers”, he said, as the Government argued the figures were evidence of the UK’s £480 million agreement with France to beef up efforts to stop migrants making the journey starting to pay off and the effectiveness of a fast-track returns deal struck with Albania.
But the Immigration Services Union, which represents border staff, said the drop in arrivals was likely to be a “glitch”, with “higher numbers” of Channel crossings expected this year.
Mr Cleverly also set himself a target of meeting Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s “stop the boats” pledge by the end of the year – a deadline Downing Street later refused to repeat.
The Home Secretary told LBC that in 2024 “my target is to reduce it to zero to stop the boats and I’m unambiguous about that”.