More than 200,000 illegal migrants cross English Channel since 2018 in shocking milestone

As the Prime Minister contends with the fallout from a disastrous election night, the Government has been dealt another major blow in its efforts to end the Channel migrant crisis.

GB News can reveal that the number of illegal migrants crossing from France has reached a shocking new milestone, with more than 200,000 arriving in the UK since the crisis began in 2018.

The grim tally was reached this morning after a group of 70 migrants were taken to the Border Force processing centre at Dover Harbour.

The group had been on a migrant dinghy that launched from a beach near Dunkirk just before 7:30am on Friday.

TRENDING

Stories

Videos

Your Say

GB News obtained social media video which one migrant posted live as they set off from the shores of northern France on the journey across the Channel.

Just after 10am they reached UK waters and were picked up by the Border Force vessel Ranger.

At the Western Jet foil in Dover harbour, where migrants are off loaded, we counted 70 migrants as they were taken for brief medical and security checks.

This latest arrival takes the number who have crossed the Channel since 2018 to 200,013.

Official figures have shown how the numbers crossing by small boat have rapidly increased over the years.
In 2018, just 299 crossed.

The following year, it rose to 1,843 - with migrants often arriving in small groups of less than a dozen, in dinghies bought locally in France, or stolen from harbours.

By 2020, the Covid pandemic saw numbers crossing by dinghy escalate. With very little freight traffic crossing the Channel, migrants who once hid away in the backs of lorries, were drawn to crossing by small boat instead.

By the following year, as Covid continued to have a huge effect on the flow of cross Channel traffic, the number crossing illegally by boat shot up to 28,526.

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

By this time, the criminal trade had become much more professionalised, using larger boats, built toorder in back street factories in China.

2022 saw this biggest year for small boat crossings on record, with 45,774 migrants arriving in the UK. In 2023 there was a drop off to 29,437. But by 2024 it had risen again to 36,816.

Under a full year of Labour last year, it rose once more to 41,472. This year so far, around 7,400 have made the illegal crossing. That figure is about 35% lower than the same point last year.

But senior maritime sources have told GB News, poor weather in the Channel has been a major factor in the drop in numbers.

Conditions are good today, with very light winds, bringing the possibility of more crossings in the hours ahead.

At dawn, police on a beach in northern Dunkirk slashed and punctured a migrant boat while it was in shallow water.

A large group of migrants who were attempting to board the dinghy were seen running away.

It is the second time in a week that French police have used this tactic, which has been condemned by human rights groups as dangerous.

A Home Office spokesman said: “This Government is bearing down on small boat crossings. The Home Secretary has signed a landmark new deal with France to boost enforcement action on beaches and put people smugglers behind bars.

"This builds on joint work that has stopped over 42,000 illegal migrants attempting to cross the channel since the election.

“We have removed or deported almost 60,000 people who were here illegally and are going further to remove the incentives that draw illegal migrants to this country.”

Our Standards: The GB News Editorial Charter