Record number of migrants cross English Channel in first four months of year
The number of migrants arriving in the UK after crossing the English Channel has set a new record for the first four months of the year.
There have been 8,064 arrivals so far in 2025, including 656 on Saturday, according to provisional Home Office figures.
This is already higher than the 7,567 people who crossed the Channel over January, February, March and April in 2024 – at the time, a record number for that period.
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% on this point last year as of Saturday (5,517) and 65% higher than at this stage in 2023 (4,899), according to PA news agency analysis of latest data.
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.
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 onboard 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 Government has vowed to crack down on people smuggling across the English Channel.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “We all want to end dangerous small boat crossings, which threaten lives and undermine our border security.
“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.”
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said: “This news underlines what we all knew – Keir Starmer has lost control of our borders.
“This is a national disgrace. Labour clearly never had a plan to stop small boat crossings. Keir Starmer’s pledge to smash the gangs lies in tatters, he’s betrayed Britain and lost control of our borders. The gangs are laughing, the boats keep coming, and taxpayers are left to foot the bill.
“We’ve been failed by a weak Prime Minister more focused on pleasing his human rights lawyer friends than protecting our borders. These crossings are not only illegal, they are unnecessary, as France is a safe country.”
