The number of migrants arriving in the UK after crossing the English Channel has set a record for the first four months of the year.
There have been 8,064 arrivals so far in 2025, including 656 on Saturday, provisional figures from the Home Office show.
This is already higher than the 7,567 people who crossed the stretch of water, which separates England and France, over January, February, March and April last year – a record at the time for the first four months of a year.
It is also a jump on the 5,946 arrivals in the first four months of 2023, and the 6,691 in the same period in 2022.
The cumulative total for 2025 so far of 8,064 people is up 46 per cent on this point last year as of Saturday (5,517) and 65 per cent higher than at this stage in 2023 (4,899), an analysis by the PA news agency analysis shows.
The 656 people recorded to have made the journey in 11 boats on Saturday is also the highest number of arrivals on a single day so far this year, but the daily total is still some way off the highest number of daily crossings recorded, which was 1,305 on September 3, 2022.
The French coastguard said in a statement 50 people were rescued at sea from various boats where some migrants asked for help on Saturday.
All 28 passengers were taken to Calais, in northern France, from one boat that got into difficulty, and 19 people were rescued on another boat while the rest on-board continued their journey.
From another boat, three people were taken to the quayside in Boulogne-sur-Mer, while others on board refused assistance and continued on their way, the coastguard said.
The figures come as the UK government has vowed to crack down on people smuggling across the English Channel.
“We all want to end dangerous small boat crossings, which threaten lives and undermine our border security,” a Home Office spokesperson said.
“The people-smuggling gangs do not care if the vulnerable people they exploit live or die, as long as they pay and we will stop at nothing to dismantle their business models and bring them to justice.
“That’s why this government has put forward a serious, credible plan to finally restore order to our asylum system, including tougher enforcement powers, ramping up returns to their highest levels for more than half a decade and a major crackdown on illegal working to end the false promise of jobs used by gangs to sell spaces on boats.” - Press Association
