More than 25,000 migrants have arrived in the UK after crossing the Channel so far this year, with nearly 900 more brought ashore yesterday.
Record numbers of people, most of them men, have made the journey in small boats so far this year – with the Government’s failure to tackle the crisis sparking widespread public anger.
Some 898 migrants made the journey in 13 boats yesterday, bringing the total number of arrivals for 2025 so far to 25,436, Home Office figures show.
Pictures showed multiple boats with people wearing lifejackets on board arriving in Dover yesterday afternoon.
Today is the earliest point in a calendar year at which the 25,000 mark has been passed since data on Channel crossings was first reported in 2018.
In 2024, the figure was passed on September 22, and in 2023 it was October 2.
The first year in which at least 25,000 arrivals were recorded was 2022, when the milestone was passed on August 27, and the total went on to hit a record 45,774 by the end of December.
Sir Keir Starmer is under intense pressure to find an effective deterrent to migrants planning the crossing, with his recent ‘one-in-one-out’ returns deal with France dismissed as a ‘gimmick’.
Migrants brought on shore at Dover yesterday after being intercepted by two Border Force cutters
French gendarmes patrol the beach at Equihen in northern France yesterday evening
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The Prime Minister has seen 48,678 migrants arrive during his premiership, putting him only 1,959 migrants behind the total during Rishi Sunak’s 619 days in power.
A Home Office spokesperson said: ‘We all want to end dangerous small boat crossings, which threaten lives and undermine our border security.’
There has been anger at the failure of French police to halt the crossings, with pictures emerging on Tuesday of a group of gendarmes in riot gear standing idly by as a group of migrants headed towards the shore.
Shockingly, one officer even appeared to be taking a selfie moments after the boat set sail towards the English coast.
As the sun began to set, the group officers then sauntered off just as another group of migrants wearing fluorescent life jackets and carrying bags started making their way to the water’s edge.
French President Emmanuel Macron had promised a tougher approach to cracking down on small boat crossings to the UK following a three-day state visit to the country earlier this month.
But police patrolling the French coast do not appear to be upholding the same sentiment.
Migrants who cross the Channel and claim asylum often end up in taxpayer-funded hotels, which have been the centre of repeated protests over the last two weeks.
Currently, 32,000 asylum seekers are housed in hotels at a cost of £3 billion per year. Ministers have vowed to end their use by the next election, but critics are sceptical.
On Tuesday, French police were spotted idly watching on as a group of migrants attempted to cross the Channel in a small boat
The group of police were decked out in full riot gear including helmets, shields and batons as they stood to watch people board a smuggler’s inflatable dinghy on Gravelines beach
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Today’s news follows statistics showing England and Wales is estimated to have grown by more than 700,000 people in the year to June – driven almost entirely by international migration.
It is the second-largest annual numerical rise in more than 75 years – behind only the increase of more than 800,000 people that took place from mid-2022 to mid-2023.
There were an estimated 61.8million people in England and Wales in mid-2024, up 706,881 from 61.1million in mid-2023, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Almost all of this increase was due to international migration, with natural change – the difference between births and deaths – accounting for only a small proportion.
Net international migration – the difference between people moving to the country and leaving – accounted for 690,147 of the estimated population increase of 706,881 people, or 98 per cent of the total, the ONS said.
Some 1,142,303 people were estimated to have come to England and Wales as immigrants in the 12 months to June 2024 while 452,156 were likely to have emigrated.
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There was a decrease in the number of births and deaths in the year to mid-2024, compared with the previous year, the figures show.
There were slightly more births (596,012) than deaths (566,030) in the year to mid-2024, which added 29,982 to the population.
By contrast, internal migration from England and Wales to elsewhere in the UK was higher (at 56,300) than the number of people moving from the UK into the two nations (42,693), meaning there was a net decrease in internal migration of 13,607.
