More than 100 migrants crossed the English Channel yesterday after almost 1,000 arrived in small boats on Friday. as Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer grapples with soaring small boat arrivals. Some 134 migrants in two boats were brought to Dover on Saturday, a BBC reporter has reported on X.

This comes after data from the Home Office showed that 919 people made the journey in 14 boats on Friday (June 13), which pushes the provisional annual total to 16,183. The latest arrivals take the total number over 1,000 in just two days. Small boat crossings are 42% higher than at the same point last year and 79% up on the same date in 2023, according to analysis by the Press Association news agency. The highest daily number so far this year was on May 31, when 1,195 people arrived.

Over 16,000 migrants have crossed the Channel so far this year. (Image: Getty)

In 2024, 37,000 made the journey across the Channel, Home Office data shows, with 45,755 migrants arriving by small boats in 2022 – the highest recent figures.

On Friday, Channel arrivals were pictured being brought into Dover on an RNLI lifeboat,while others were brought ashore by Border Force.

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp posted on X that another 1,000 “illegal immigrants” had entered Britain, as he accused Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer of being “too weak to implement a removals deterrent”.

Mr Philp said: “Every single one of these illegal immigrants should be immediately removed to a location outside Europe and no, Darren, they’re not mostly women and children.”

Earlier this week, Chief Secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones said on BBC Question Times that the majority of people in the small boats are children, babies and women.

He later posted on social media: “Of course the overall majority of people arriving illegally on small boats are men – but not ‘north of 90%’ as Reform claimed.

“On BBC Question Time, I shared a story from my visit to the Border Security Command about a dinghy that arrived mostly carrying women, children and babies who had suffered horrific burns. I’m happy to clarify this given how this is now being misrepresented.”

A Home Office spokesperson said: “We all want to end dangerous small boat crossings, which threaten lives and undermine our border security.

“The people-smuggling gangs do not care if the vulnerable people they exploit live or die as long as they pay, and we will stop at nothing to dismantle their business models and bring them to justice.

“That is why this Government has put together a serious plan to take down these networks at every stage, and why we are investing up to an additional £280million per year by 2028-29 in the Border Security Command.

“Through international intelligence-sharing under our Border Security Command, enhanced enforcement operations in northern France and tougher legislation in the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, we are strengthening international partnerships and boosting our ability to identify, disrupt and dismantle criminal gangs whilst strengthening the security of our borders.”