More than 600 small boat migrants reached the UK yesterday, pushing this year’s running total past the 6,000 mark.
Nine boat-loads of migrants were picked up mid-Channel by Border Force vessels during Saturday and brought ashore at the Port of Dover.
The Home Office confirmed there were 602 arrivals – the second-highest daily total so far this year, just below the 605 who completed the journey from northern France on February 25.
The latest arrivals brought the total so far this year to 6,077.
It also means that since Labour came to power 70,701 migrants have crossed the Channel to reach Britain.
It comes after Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood was forced to agree a temporary deal with the French government to continue beach patrols funded by the UK taxpayer.
A previous multi-year deal with Emmanuel Macron’s government, signed in 2023, expired at the end of last month.
The £478million package was also expected to pay for a new detention centre in France which has still not opened.
In the new negotiations Labour has been demanding performance-related payments which will see funding payments staggered according to the number of migrants who are prevented from leaving the French beaches.
But the French have refused to accept Ms Mahmood’s demands.
The temporary deal will run for two months – costing the British taxpayer £16.2million – as attempts are made to thrash out a longer-term agreement.
Last month Ms Mahmood launched a separate scheme offering failed asylum seekers families up to £40,000 to voluntarily leave Britain.
But she has refused to disclose how many have taken up the offer.
Most failed asylum seeker families offered the cash are living in migrant hotels at an average cost of £158,000 a year per family.
Under Ms Mahmood’s scheme will receive £10,000 per head up to a maximum of £40,000, plus air tickets home.
The Conservatives accused the Home Secretary of ‘shocking secrecy’ over the programme.
If any asylum seekers have turned down the cash offer it would be a devastating indictment of Britain’s broken asylum system.
It would signal that migrants have calculated they will be better off remaining here indefinitely at the taxpayers’ expense.
It would also open the prospect of Ms Mahmood increasing the cash offer to a much higher level in a bid to persuade the families to leave.
Officials said when the scheme was launched on March 5 that they would look at upping the financial incentive ‘depending on take-up’.
There are currently thousands of failed asylum seeker families being supported by public funds, officials said, but the exact number is not known by the Home Office due to weaknesses in its data-gathering.
But sources were able to confirm that 700 Albanian families who have exhausted their appeals process are still being supported by the public purse.
Eligible families have had claims rejected by the Home Office and have then exhausted the appeals process in the courts.
Labour’s separate ‘one in, one out’ scheme launched last year allowing small boat migrants to be returned to France has seen 377 removed so far but 380 have been brought into the UK under the reciprocal terms of the deal.
The scheme is due to end in June.
In a further sign that Labour’s small boats policies are in disarray, the head of the UK’s border security command stepped down at the end of last month after failing to stem the surge in crossings.
Sir Keir Starmer appointed Martin Hewitt, a former senior police officer, shortly after becoming Prime Minister – tasking him with curbing numbers crossing the Channel.
But during his 18 months in the job crossings continued at sky-high levels, with last year witnessing the second-highest annual total on record.
