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The number of migrants arriving in the UK after crossing the English Channel rose by a quarter last year compared to the previous 12 months, government figures showed on Wednesday.
A total of 36,816 people arrived in Britain on small boats in 2024, a 25 per cent increase on the 29,437 who arrived in 2023, according to provisional figures released by the Home Office.
The result will increase pressure on Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to tackle irregular migration, after he promised to “crush the gangs” that control the smuggling trade during the election campaign last year.
Immigration and asylum is now the second most important issue for voters after the economy, ahead of health, according to a poll by research firm YouGov.
The latest total makes 2024 the second-highest year for crossing the Channel since data was first collected in 2018. However, it is down 20 percent on the peak year of 2022, when 45,774 people arrived.
The last crossings took place on December 29, when 291 people set off from France in six boats. Bad weather conditions made it impossible to cross the last two days of the year.
Former Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was forced to admit he had failed to deliver on his promise to “stop the boats” after the Tories suffered their heaviest defeat in July’s general election.
In the first part of the year, up to the voting day on July 4, a record number of migrants crossed the border compared to comparable periods in previous years.
Some 13,574 migrants arrived in the UK during that time, up 19 per cent on the same period last year and up 5 per cent on the same period in 2022, according to an analysis of Home Office data by the PA news agency.
Following Labour’s landslide victory, arrivals to the end of 2024 were also higher than the previous year, but lower than in the same period in 2022.
Last year was considered the deadliest for channel crossings, according to data from the French Coast Guard. 53 people were found to have died while traveling on the world’s busiest shipping route, with some campaign groups estimating the figure to be higher.
UK Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said ministers had a moral responsibility to tackle the problem of Channel crossings, but refused to put a deadline on the government’s promise to ensure a “sharp fall” in numbers.
Starmer insisted Labor had “inherited a very bad position” from the previous Tory administration, which he accused of focusing too much on the “trick” of removing asylum seekers arriving in Rwanda by small boats.
On entering Downing Street, he scrapped the controversial scheme before it was launched, shifting the UK’s focus to deeper cooperation with European allies and international law enforcement agencies.
The latest figures show that an average of 53 migrants arrived per boat in 2024, four more than in 2023, a big increase from 2018 when the average boat carried seven people.
The number of people arriving in the UK on small boats last year remained smaller than Italy, Spain and Greece.
