More than 700 migrants arrived in UK in 11 boats in a single day, new figures show
Sir Keir Starmer has pledged to “smash the gangs” who are paid thousands by each person to get them across the Channel in small boats.
More than 700 migrants arrived in the UK after crossing the Channel in 11 boats on Sunday – the highest since Labour came to power.
Home Office data published on Monday shows 703 people were detected coming across yesterday, which is also the third highest this year.
Eleven boats were detected, suggesting an average of 64 people per boat.
On Sunday, two people died trying to cross the Channel in a small boat.
Their small boat was in French waters when they sent a distress signal to the regional coastguard centre.
About 50 migrants were rescued from the boat by a helicopter and two boats, with “many” pulled out of the water with “fuel burn injuries”, the French maritime regional authorities said.
Those rescued were returned to France, with an investigation into the two deaths being led by the country.
The total number of arrivals to the UK in small boats in 2024 now stands at a provisional 18,342.
That is 13% higher than at this point last year, when 16,170 had crossed.
But it is 3% lower than 2022, which was 18,978 at this stage.
The highest on a single day this year was on 18 June, when 882 people crossed, while the second highest was 711 on 1 May – both before the general election on 4 July.
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Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has promised to “smash the gangs” by creating a new Border Security Command to tackle people-smuggling gangs bringing migrants across the Channel.
Officers will be granted new powers under the Counter Terrorism Act to allow them to conduct stop and searches at the border, carry out financial investigations and issue search and seizure warrants targeting organised immigration crime.
Since coming into government, Sir Keir has also announced £84m of funding for African and Middle Eastern countries in an attempt to tackle the migration crisis “at source”.
Sir Keir said the money will go towards health and education initiatives, as well as humanitarian support, to address the reasons people flee their homes in the first place.
The prime minister’s spokesman on Monday said summer “is a challenging time” for boat crossings and reiterated what Sir Keir said before.
“We expect to see increases before we see improvements. It is vital that we work to smash the gangs who are responsible,” he said.
He said doing so is “one of the government’s first priorities”.
