Number of small boat arrivals passes 6,000 since Labour got here to energy
The number of Channel small boat arrivals has passed 6,000 since Labour came to power.
Figures from the Home Office, published yesterday, showed 526 migrants reached the UK from northern France on Tuesday.
Some 613 arrivals are also believed to have crossed the Channel yesterday. It brings the total since the General Election to a reported 6,858 – and 20,433 overall since the start of the year.
This year’s running tally has already surpassed the amount who had arrived by the same point last year – 19,801.
But it is down on the 25,065 who had arrived by the same point in 2022.
Some 613 arrivals are also believed to have crossed the Channel yesterday. It brings the total since the General Election to a reported 6,858 – and 20,433 overall since the start of the year
Migrants wave to a smuggler’s boat in an attempt to cross the English Channel, on the beach of Gravelines, near Dunkirk, northern France on April 26, 2024
One of Labour’s first acts in office was scrapping the Tories‘ Rwanda scheme, which was meant to save lives by deterring migrants from crossing the Channel.
Sir Keir Starmer’s plan to deal with the crisis involves creating a Border Security Command, which will bring together existing immigration units and equip them with ‘counter-terrorism style’ powers, as well as seeking returns agreements with other countries.
Tuesday’s arrivals were the first to reach the UK for a week before more than 600 migrants crossed the Channel yesterday, according to GB News.
The group, which included children, were intercepted in the Channel by Border Force vessels Defender and Volunteer, and brought into the Port of Dover.
Last week it emerged the number of migrants winning permission to remain indefinitely in Britain has quadrupled but efforts to increase deportations have stalled.
More than 25,300 Channel migrants were granted asylum or another type of humanitarian protection in the year to June, Home Office data showed.
It compared with about 6,600 in the previous 12 months.
Across all types of asylum claims, the number granted last year hit an all-time high of 76,176, – more than triple the previous year’s figure.
The increases were due to a backlog-clearing exercise launched by Rishi Sunak which aimed to eliminate ‘legacy’ asylum claims by the end of 2023.
Sir Keir Starmer’s (pictured on August 28) plan to deal with the crisis involves creating a Border Security Command, which will bring together existing immigration units and equip them with ‘counter-terrorism style’ powers, as well as seeking returns agreements with other countries
Migrants are brought into Dover Port after being picked up in the English Channel by the Border Force on May 8, 2024
An inflatable dinghy carrying apparent migrants makes its way towards the UK in the Channel on August 6, 2024
But the data showed just 3 per cent of migrants who have arrived since the start of the Channel crisis have been deported. Only 3,788 of the 127,834 who have crossed since 2018 have been sent home.
A Home Office spokesman said: ‘We all want to see an end to dangerous small boat crossings, which are undermining border security and putting lives at risk.
The spokesman added the Government ‘is taking steps to boost our border security, setting up a new Border Security Command which will bring together our intelligence and enforcement agencies, equipped with new counter-terror-style powers and hundreds of personnel stationed in the UK and overseas, to smash the criminal smuggling gangs making millions in profit.’
