More than 1,000 migrants have arrived in UK already in 2025 in new record as Keir Starmer struggles to get to grips with Channel crisis_Nhy
More than 1,000 migrants have crossed the English Channel in small boats so far this year in a new record laying bare how Sir Keir Starmer is struggling to cope with the crisis.
Two dinghies carrying 129 people were spotted by Border Force vessels on Tuesday despite poor visibility – taking the provisional total for 2025 to date to 1,019 in 18 boats with an average of 57 per vessel.
This means it has only taken 21 days this year for crossings to reach 1,000 – the quickest time on record.
The last record for the same period was in 2022, when 963 asylum seekers arrived in small boats. But they came in 34 vessels – an average of 28 migrants per boat – suggesting smugglers are using bigger boats and packing more people on to them.
Those on board were brought into the Port of Dover, Kent after being taken onboard Border Force catamarans mid-Channel.
It is a major blow for the PM, who has pledged to drive down Channel crossings by ‘smashing’ Europe-based smuggling gangs upstream.
He has met with several fellow leaders, including Italian premier Giorgia Meloni, to lobby for more co-operation with European capitals to stem the flow of migrants across the Continent.
But the latest figures lay bare the failure of Sir Keir to get a grip of the issue quickly and suggest that axing the Tories’ Rwanda deportation scheme may have made things worse.
Two dinghies carrying 190 people were spotted by Border Force vessels on Tuesday despite poor visibility
It has only taken 21 days this year for crossings to reach 1,000 – the quickest time on record
Those on board were brought into the Port of Dover, Kent after being taken onboard Border Force catamarans mid-Channel
Scrapping the scheme, which supporters said was a deterrent against crossings, was one of his first acts as Prime Minister.
He has instead launched a Border Security Command, headed by former police chief Martin Hewitt, in an effort to tackle the smuggling gangs.
The data also suggest former Tory PM Rishi Sunak was right to claim that thousands of migrants were ‘queueing up’ in Calais in anticipation of an incoming Labour government which had promised to ditch the Rwanda scheme.
The official figures, published by the Home Office, showed that the busiest day for crossings this year was January 13, when 260 migrants arrived in five boats.
A total of 61 arrived in the first week of this year, 327 in the second week and 631 in the seven days to Tuesday. Just 21 arrived during the first three weeks of 2020.
Tory former immigration minister, Robert Jenrick, said: ‘Their decision to scrap, not strengthen, the Rwanda scheme has backfired. Starmer talks of smashing the gangs but really he has surrendered to them.’
Danny Kruger, Tory MP for East Wiltshire, added: ‘The only way to stop them [small boats] is to detain and deport all illegal arrivals, either back to their own country or to a safe third country like Rwanda.’
One man has reportedly died so far this year and others have been hospitalised as a result of the crossings.
Last year, 36,816 people successfully crossed the busy shipping strait during the deadliest year on record for small boat migrants.
Tuesday’s arrivals mark the first in three days, despite favourable weather conditions.
The latest numbers add pressure on the PM, pictured, as he struggles to get to grips with the issue
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp, pictured, said the government had ‘lost control’ of Britain’s borders
On Monday a major rescue operation was launched to save 84 migrants crammed into one dinghy
The French coastguard was alerted after witnesses on a a beach saw the overloaded inflatable attempting to make the crossing to the UK
On Monday a major rescue operation was launched to save 84 migrants crammed into one dinghy after it stranded on a sand bank as they tried to cross the English Channel.
The French coastguard was alerted after witnesses on a a beach saw the overloaded inflatable attempting to make the crossing to the UK.
A French customs vessel nearby was sent to the area to monitor the dinghy off Walde, near Calais.
After arriving, the crew reported the dinghy had stranded on a sandbank but they could not get close enough to assist as the water was too shallow.
The stranded migrants also made a distress call to the French authorities.
A navy air sea rescue helicopter was scrambled as well as another boat to help with the rescue as the tide began to rise.
22 people isolated by the tide were recovered from the sandbank and transferred to the customs boat.
The remaining 62 on board the dinghy, were able to carry on trying to reach the UK but they too put out a second distress signal.
They rescue tug Abeille Normandie, chartered by the French Navy, went to assist and picked up the 62 people remaining on board the boat before dropping them off at the French port of Boulogne-sur-Mer where they were all taken care of by the rescue services on land.
A Home Office spokesman said it would ‘stop at nothing’ to dismantle the smuggling gangs’ business models ‘and bring them to justice.’
