More migrants have crossed the English Channel this year than in all of 2023 | UK

More migrants According to official figures, more people crossed the English Channel this year than in all of last year.

Four hundred and twenty-four people crossed the dangerous crossing on Friday (October 25), bringing the total for the year to 29,578.

By comparison, 29,437 migrants entered the UK after crossing the busy sea route in 2023.

The French coastguard has reported 48 migrant deaths so far this year and has issued repeated warnings this week about the dangers of traveling through the Strait of Dover in the English Channel.

It is the narrowest section of the English Channel and is widely recognized as the world’s busiest shipping lane.

More than 600 ships pass through it every day, according to the French coast guard, and weather conditions are dangerous even when the sea appears calm.

France said Thursday it rescued 76 migrants in three boats after they called for help when they encountered difficulties trying to travel.

They were taken back to Calais, but several people on the two boats refused assistance and a decision was made to allow those remaining to continue, given the risk of them being injured or falling overboard, according to a translation of a coastguard statement. if the crews had intervened.

The rescue came a day after three migrants died and dozens of others were rescued when a boat trying to reach Britain sank, and just a week after a child was killed in another similar incident.

After abandoning the previous government’s crackdown in Rwanda, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper vowed to detain more illegal migrants and endure a record number of deportations.

She also vowed to destroy criminal gangs making millions by smuggling migrants into the UK on small boats.

A Home Office spokesman said the government would “stop at nothing” to disrupt the business models of people smuggling gangs.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer also wants to pass a new border security bill that would give police and border guards powers to fight terrorism and prosecute smuggling gangs.

Shadow Home Secretary James Cleverly said that the arrival of small boats under Keir Starmer will get even worse just days after Labor took power.

He said the scrapping of the Rwandan scheme and an “effective amnesty” for 90,000 illegal arrivals had made the UK a “magnet for migrants from all over the world”.