More than 800 illegal boat migrants crossed the English Channel from France on Saturday, marking a fresh record for the month of December since 2018.
After a month of relative quiet in the waterway due to harsh weather conditions, Channel crossings have begun to ramp back up again, with 737 crossings last weekend and a further 803 arrived on Saturday.
According to The Sun newspaper, Saturday’s crossings marked the highest daily total since October 8th, when 1,075 reached British shores in a day. The paper also noted that it marked the highest daily total for the month of December since the crisis began in earnest in 2018.
The BBC calculated that the latest arrivals take the total for the year to 41,455. This is compared to 36,816 during the entire year of 2024. It also marks the first time that more than 40,000 arrived since 2022, when 45,755 illegals reached the UK in small boats.
The failure by the government to stem the tide of illegal migrants has been a major setback for Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, whose left-wing Labour Party swept to power last year in large part over voter frustration with the previous Tory government’s handling of Britain’s borders.
Rather than pushing people-smuggler-operated boats back to the beaches of France, the Starmer government negotiated the so-called “one in, one out” deal with Paris. The deal allows for illegal boat migrants to be sent back to France — after being brought ashore in Britain — in exchange for the UK accepting alleged asylum seekers from France.
Despite inking the deal in July, the scheme had only successfully removed 153 people as of last month. Meanwhile, there have been documented cases of migrants simply returning to Britain on small boats after being removed under the scheme to France.
In contrast to the scheme negotiated by Starmer, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage recently came to an understanding with French National Rally president Jordan Bardella — currently the odds-on favourite to replace President Emmanuel Macron — in which Paris would allow London to push migrants back to France.
“NGOs funded by public money go and pick up boats 20 kilometres off the Tunisian or Libyan coast and Frontex picks them up. I’m against this, so I have to be consistent with my principles. I can’t defend the notion of pushbacks and then refuse to allow Great Britain to do the same,” Bardella said earlier this month.
Responding to the latest arrivals, Mr Farage simply said that Prime Minister Starmer is “gutless and useless”.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “The number of small boat crossings are shameful and the British people deserve better.”
“This Government is taking action. We have removed almost 50,000 people who were here illegally, and our historic deal with the French means those who arrive on small boats are now being sent back.”
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