Channel crossings: 100,000 since 2018 and new daily record set for 2023

Migrant crossings reached the highest number in a single day for the year so far as figures confirmed over 100,000 people have made the journey in the past five years. Since current records began on January 1 2018, 100,715 people have arrived in the UK after making the journey, according to analysis of Government data by the PA news agency. The milestone was reached after 755 people crossed the Channel on Thursday in 14 boats. This is the highest daily number so far this year. The numbers were recorded as a major search and rescue operation was launched after 17 migrants went overboard and were pulled from the water. The Home Office said they were all taken ashore for medical checks. Meanwhile, Border Force reportedly suffered a double blow as one of its cutters broke down in the early hours of the morning and a £400,000 drone used to monitor activity in the Channel crashed into the sea. The crossings come just weeks after sweeping asylum reforms became law and while the Government fends off legal challenges in the courts over its Rwanda deal and decisions to house migrants on former military sites in Essex and Lincolnshire. Meanwhile, asylum seekers were finally moved onto the Bibby Stockholm barge on the Dorset coast after the plans were beset by delays. The much-criticised Illegal Migration Act, central to the Prime Minister’s pledge to ‘stop the boats’ crossing the Channel, will prevent people from claiming asylum in the UK if they arrive through unauthorised means. Officials are still working on when the legislation will come into force, and it is anticipated elements of the new laws may be implemented in stages over the coming months. So far this year 15,826 migrants have arrived in the UK after crossing the Channel, provisional Home Office figures show. A record 45,755 people made the journey in 2022. That was 60% up on the 28,526 recorded for the whole of 2021, but lower than the 60,000 officials previously estimated could make the journey during that year. The number of migrants crossing the Channel has steadily increased since 299 people were detected in 2018. In December that year then-home secretary Sajid Javid cut short a Christmas break to return to the UK and take charge of the unfolding crisis. He declared a ‘major incident’ in the wake of 40 migrants making the journey on Christmas Day and 12 more arriving days later. There were 1,843 crossings recorded in 2019 and 8,466 in 2020, according to the Home Office. August last year was the highest month on record for crossings when 8,631 people arrived in the UK after making the journey. August 22 also saw a record 1,295 migrants crossing in a single day on 27 boats. This is still the highest daily figure recorded since 2018.