A group of migrants crossed the English Channel in a small boat on Monday. Photo: Steve Finn
More than 400 Channel migrants reached the UK on Monday, setting a record for the year as the total number of border crossings during Rishi Sunak's premiership reached 40,000.
On Monday, 401 people crossed the English Channel in seven boats, the Home Office said, bringing the total for the year to 2,983, up slightly from the 2,953 at the same point last year and the 2022 total. .
< p>Monday's total of eight boat arrivals exceeded the previous 2024 record of 358 arrivals on January 17, and the total since Mr Sunak became Prime Minister on October 25, 2022 , reached 40,046.
Arrivals into the UK are beginning to recover from a period of bad weather in the English Channel, with 728 migrants detected in the last two days alone.
Attempts to cross the border were also reported by the French coastguard, who had to rescue a boat early on Monday morning with 63 migrants off the coast of Gravelines.
They took action despite the death of a seven-year-old girl. On Sunday, a boat carrying 16 migrants capsized more than a mile off the coast of Dunkirk.
Yvette Cooper, Labour's shadow home secretary, said: “This is a prime minister who promised the British people he would stop the boats, but now more than 40,000 people have arrived under his command. This is a Prime Minister who has said his strategy is working, but also presides over the busiest start to a year on record for Channel crossings.
“Independent reports show that under Rishi Sunak our border security has become a farce, billions are being wasted on refugee hotels and the Home Office has just lost thousands of asylum seekers. Everything this Prime Minister touches fails and our country deserves better than his weak, incompetent leadership.»
But Downing Street insisted the Government's efforts to limit Channel crossings were working. Number 10 stressed that the UK and France's joint work has «already delivered results» with more than 26,000 attempted border crossings stopped in 2023, with an interception rate of 47 per cent.
Asked whether Mr Sunak regretted failing to deliver on his pledge to stop boat traffic, his spokesman said: “The Prime Minister is focused on making further progress on reducing small craft crossings.”
< p>It comes after James Cleverley chaired a meeting in Brussels at which Britain and France agreed to lead a new customs partnership in a bid to disrupt the supply chain for boats used to cross the English Channel.
Asked in an interview with The Telegraph on the death of the seven-year-old home affairs minister, he said: «The bottom line is that smugglers are showing increasing disregard for human life.»
Mr Umno said his conversations with France showed , that it was «absolutely committed» to helping Britain stop the boats.
He said this was not only due to the UK's £480 million, three-year deal with France aimed at providing more officers, equipment for surveillance and harassment on beaches, and working «upstream» to disrupt the supply chains of people smugglers' boats.
«They are determined to help us stop the boats, and I am absolutely determined to make sure of that,» he added. “The best way to do this is not just on the north-west coast of France. Helping our European friends solve some of these upstream problems will help them help us in the English Channel.»
Свежие комментарии