More than 29,500 people have made the dangerous crossing so far this year, official figures show.
Migrants prepare to board a smugglers’ boat to attempt crossing the English Channel. (Image: Getty)
More migrants have crossed the English Channel this year than all of last year, official figures show.
Four hundred twenty-four people made the perilous crossing on Friday (October 25), bringing the total for this year to 29,578.
This compares to the 29,437 migrants who entered the UK after crossing the busy sea lane in 2023.
The French coastguard has reported 48 migrant deaths so far this year and this week repeated warnings about how dangerous the journey is through the Channel’s Dover Strait.
This is the narrowest stretch of the English Channel and is widely recognised as the busiest shipping lane in the world.
The total number of people crossing the Channel in small boats so far this year is to 29,578. (Image: Getty)
According to the French coastguard, more than 600 ships pass through it every day and the weather conditions are dangerous even when the sea appears calm.
On Thursday, France said it had rescued 76 migrants in three boats after they called for help when they encountered difficulty while attempting the journey.
They were taken back to Calais, but several others on two of the boats refused help, and according to a translation of the coastguard’s statement, the decision was made to allow those remaining to continue their journey given the dangers of their being injured or falling overboard if crews intervened.
The rescue came a day after three migrants died and dozens of others were rescued when a boat sank trying to reach the UK and only a week after a baby died in another similar incident.
After scrapping the previous government’s Rwanda deterrent, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper pledged to detain more illegal migrants and see through a record number of deportations.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper vowed to destroy the criminal smuggling gangs. (Image: Getty)
She has also vowed to destroy the criminal gangs making millions from smuggling migrants into the UK in small boats.
A Home Office spokesman said the Government will “stop at nothing” to dismantle the business models of people-smuggling gangs.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer also wants to pass a new Border Security Bill to give police and border agents counter-terrorism powers to target smuggling gangs.
Shadow Home Secretary James Cleverly said that small boat arrivals would get worse under Keir Starmer just days after Labour swept to power.
He claimed that scrapping the Rwanda scheme and an “effective amnesty” for 90,000 illegal arrivals made the UK “a magnet for migrants the world over”.
