The migrant crisis has reached a new record just three months into 2024. Some 4,644 people have made the perilous journey across the English Channel so far, provisional Home Office figures show.
The total was brought up to record-breaking highs after another 338 people were detected in the Channel on Tuesday (March 26). This tops 2022’s data, the last record to be reached, which showed arrivals from January to March had seen 4,548 cross from France.
There were 3,793 arrivals in the first three months of 2023. The cumulative number of arrivals so far this year, 4,644, is 23 percent higher than the total at this point last year, which was 3,770, and 12 percent higher than the total at this stage in 2022, which was 4,162.
There were 29,437 arrivals across the whole of 2023, down 36 percent on a record 45,774 arrivals in 2022.
Rishi Sunak’s stop the boats plan culminates in sending migrants to be processed in Rwanda. But it was dealt a fresh blow by the House of Lords earlier this month with five more defeats.
The second chamber voted to restore UK courts’ ability to ground deportation flights to Kigali – overturning a key element of the Home Office’s emergency legislation.
Labour said it was “time to get a grip and restore order to the border” in the wake of the latest migrant Channel crossing figures.
Shadow immigration minister Stephen Kinnock said: “Despite all the evidence to the contrary, Rishi Sunak keeps on telling the British people that small boat arrivals are coming down and his promise to stop the boats remains on track.
“Can he not see what is happening from inside his No. 10 bunker, or does he think we can’t see it for ourselves? Either way, it’s time to get a grip and restore order to the border.
“Labour will strengthen our border security, crush the smuggling gangs, clear the asylum backlog, end hotel use and set up a new returns and enforcement unit so those with no right to be in the UK are swiftly returned. That is the plan we need.”
This is a breaking news story.
