Small boat Channel crossings continue despite foggy weather after migrant total reaches 150,000

A group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, by the RNLI Dungeness Lifeboat following a small boat incident in the Channel. Credit: PA

Small boat crossings have continued in the English Channel on Saturday despite the morning’s foggy conditions.

Pictures showed the Dungeness lifeboat bringing a number of people, thought to have been picked up from a small boat in the Channel, into the port at Dover.

The latest arrivals follow crossings made on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and 27 December – the first time since 2018 small boats have made the journey on all of those dates.

Official Government figures show 305 people arrived in the UK via small boat on Friday, bringing the total for the week to 1,163.

The 407 arrivals on 26 December meant more than 150,000 people had made the crossing from France since records began on 1 January 2018, prompting a political blame game over responsibility for the numbers.

The lifeboat bringing a number of people despite foggy conditions Credit: PA

A Home Office source sought to blame the previous government, saying they had left “an appalling legacy of broken border security”, while Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp blamed Labour’s decision to scrap the Tories’ Rwanda scheme.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has put international co-operation with law enforcement agencies in Europe at the heart of his bid to cut the number of arrivals, having promised to “smash the gangs” smuggling people across the Channel during this year’s election.

Some 22,629 people have arrived in the UK after crossing the Channel since Sir Keir became Prime Minister in July, up 25% on the same period in 2023 but down 31% on the record year of 2022.So far this year, 36,204 migrants have arrived in the UK on small boats, provisional Home Office figures show.

This is up 23% on this time last year, but down 21% on 2022.

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