Record 882 migrants cross Channel
A record of around 882 migrants were detected crossing the English Channel yesterday, marking the highest number on a single day this year.
The Home Office said they made the journey in 15 boats, suggesting an average of 59 people per boat.
People smugglers took advantage of the sea’s calm conditions on Tuesday on one of the busiest days of the year so far for crossings.
RNLI lifeboats and Border Force Vessels were sent out at 4am to round up men, women and children as they arrived into the Port of Dover.
The latest crossings take the provisional total for the number of arrivals so far this year to 12,313.
This is 18 per cent higher than this time last year when 10,472 crossings were recorded, and up 5 per cent on the total at this stage in 2022 (11,690).
Last year, 29,437 migrants arrived in the UK, down 36 per cent on a record 45,774 arrivals in 2022.
RNLI lifeboats and Border Force Vessels were seen rounding up men, women and children as they arrived into the Port of Dover yesterday
Dozens of migrants could be seen leaving a Border Force catamaran on Tuesday
Migrants board a smuggler’s boat in an attempt to cross the English Channel in April
A group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, on May 24
Since the Government struck the deal to send migrants to Rwanda more than two years ago – which has since stalled amid legal challenges – more than 80,000 people have made the journey.
The tally of crossings since Rishi Sunak, who pledged to ‘stop the boats’, became Prime Minister is edging closer to 50,000.
Meanwhile, Mr Sunak told broadcasters this week that the fact young children were crossing the Channel was ‘desperately sad’ and demonstrated why his Rwanda policy needed to be implemented.
He said: ‘It’s desperately sad to see young children being put in these very dangerous situations, making these crossings, which illustrates why we have to stop the boats, something I’m determined to do and have a clear plan to do so.
‘If re-elected as Prime Minister, the flights will go to Rwanda, we will build that deterrent, removing the incentive for people to come here in the first place.
‘That’s the only way to solve this problem and in contrast Keir Starmer would release everyone that we have detained, illegal migrants would be on our streets, they wouldn’t be on the planes, which would be cancelled. There would be no deterrent.’
An overloaded dinghy of migrants crossing the Channel to the UK in April
Rishi Sunak (pictured riding on a boat in the harbour of Clovelly) told broadcasters this week that the fact young children were crossing the Channel was ‘desperately sad’
In March, the Home Office confirmed the voluntary relocation plan to Rwanda was open to anyone caught in Britain with no right to be here.
A month later, the first failed asylum seeker was paid £3,000 to be relocated to Rwanda.
The £3,000 payment is part of a voluntary programme that saw the second person fly to Kigali on Tuesday, with another person set to follow next week.
The programme is separate from the Rwanda scheme to forcibly relocate small boat migrants, which remains mired in uncertainty given Labour’s pledge to axe it if Sir Keir Starmer wins the general election.
