Channel crossings: Busiest day of the year so far sees 401 migrants arrive in UK

More than 400 migrants arrived in the UK on Monday on the busiest day of the year so far for Channel crossings.

Home Office figures show 401 people made the journey in seven boats. This is the highest number recorded in a single day for 2024 to date and suggests an average of around 57 people per boat.

It comes after a seven-year-old girl drowned on Sunday while trying to make the journey. Some 327 migrants crossed the Channel in eight boats that day, meaning 728 people were recorded arriving within 48 hours.

The second highest daily total recorded to date in 2024 was 358 migrants arriving on January 17 in eight boats.

The latest crossings take the provisional total number of UK arrivals so far this year to 2,983.

This is slightly higher than the 2,953 logged this time last year and surpasses the running totals documented between January 1 and March 4 each year since current records began in 2018, government data indicates.

The combined total for January and February was down 24% on the number who made the journey over the same period last year, but up 52% on arrivals recorded in the first two months of 2022, PA news agency analysis suggests.

The figures suggest more than 40,000 migrants have arrived in the UK since Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister in October 2022, with more than 72,000 arrivals recorded since the Rwanda deal was signed six months earlier.

It comes as Home Secretary James Cleverly – who set himself a target of meeting Mr Sunak’s key “stop the boats” pledge by the end of this year – hosted a meeting in Brussels where Britain and France agreed to lead a new customs partnership in a bid to disrupt the supply chain of boats being used to make Channel crossings.

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said: “This is the Prime Minister who promised the British people he would stop the boats, but has now seen more than 40,000 arrivals on his watch.

“This is the Prime Minister who said his strategy was working, yet is presiding over the busiest start to a year on record in terms of Channel crossings.

“Under Rishi Sunak, independent reports show our border security has become a farce, billions are being spent on asylum hotels, and the Home Office has just lost thousands of asylum seekers.

“Everything this Prime Minister touches fails, and our country deserves better than his weak, incompetent leadership.”

But Downing Street insisted the Government’s efforts to curb Channel crossings are making a difference.

Asked whether the latest agreement will change anything, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “Yes. The UK and France have agreed a new customs partnership to disrupt the supply chain of small boats materials.

“That obviously builds on the work that we already do to prevent small boat launches from northern France.”

Number 10 stressed the UK’s joint work with France is “already delivering”, with more than 26,000 crossing attempts prevented in 2023 at an interception rate of 47%.

Asked whether Mr Sunak is sorry for being unable to deliver on his pledge to stop the boats, his spokesman said: “The PM is focused on making further progress to reducing small boat crossings.”

Downing Street suggested peers should work with the Commons and “protect innocent lives from perilous journeys” after the Archbishop of Canterbury and Tory former Cabinet ministers helped inflict the heaviest defeat Mr Sunak has suffered in the Lords over his proposed Rwanda asylum law.

The string of Government setbacks, most passed by unusually large margins of more than 100 votes, set the stage for a Westminster showdown over the legislation that aims to clear the way to send asylum seekers who cross the Channel on a one-way flight to Kigali.

The Prime Minister previously warned the unelected chamber against frustrating “the will of the people” by hampering the passage of his Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill, which has already been approved by MPs.

Number 10 refused to say whether the Government has found an airline to undertake the deportation flights but insisted it is confident it will have the logistics in place should the scheme get go-ahead.