More than 700 migrants cross English Channel to push yearly complete over 40,000 and finish 28-day run of no small boat arrivals
More than 700 migrants crossed the English Channel on Saturday to push the yearly total of arrivals above 40,000.
Home Office figures showed 737 people made the journey to Britain via small boats on 13 December across 11 vessels – an average of 67 people per vessel.
It means the total number of migrants who have crossed the English Channel so far this year stands at 40,029.
The last time more than 40,000 migrants crossed in a year was in 2022, when the total for the year was 45,755.
In 2023, the total number of migrant arrivals stood at 29,437, while it was 36,816 for 2024.
Saturday’s arrivals brought to an end a period of 28 days without migrant boats crossing the Channel – the longest uninterrupted run since 2018.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood on Sunday acknowledged that a change in the weather this weekend had prompted the first migrant arrivals in nearly a month.
A group of people thought to be migrants are brought to the Border Force compound in Dover, Kent, on Saturday
Home Office figures showed 737 people made the journey to Britain via small boats on 13 December across 11 vessels – an average of 67 people per vessel
She told Sky News: ‘We are working very closely with our partners in France, particularly in the north of France, but actually further upstream with our partners in Europe as well.
‘Look, the work that we’re doing with law enforcement in France has already stopped 20,000 crossings.
‘In fact, even yesterday, when we saw the change in weather had led to people successfully making a crossing again, there were disruptive methods and they did stop some of those boats.’
She added: ‘We have learned a lot since we’ve been in Government about which all the interventions that work.
And those are the interventions that we want to focus our efforts on with our partners in France. But this is a difficult challenge.
‘There is no one silver bullet here. We have acknowledged that before, and I acknowledge it again.
‘We have to come up with a range of proposals at every level in order to try and bear down on this.’
The French Maritime Prefect said it had received reports of several migrant vessels departing on Saturday.
At about 10.50am, four people were reported to have fallen in the sea in the Sangatte area.
They were recovered from the water, with all four of them suffering from hypothermia.
At 2.14pm, another small boat suffered from engine failure and 28 migrants were recovered before the vessel restarted and continued its journey across the Channel.
The prefect said in a statement: ‘Given the structural fragility of systematically overloaded boats, the choice is made not to force migrants to embark on the (French) state’s rescue means, to avoid endangering their lives in the event of a shipwreck.’
