Small boat crossings poised to hit 200,000 total since crisis began

The total number of migrants to have reached Britain since the start of the Channel crisis is poised to tip over an eye-watering 200,000.

The grim milestone looks set to be passed today, after more than 400 arrivals on Sunday brought the running tally to 199,828.

Official data published by the Home Office showed the huge number of small boat migrants have arrived in the UK since the first recorded crossing on January 31, 2018.

The 200,000 migrants are equivalent to the population of a city the size of Norwich.

There were 422 arrivals yesterday aboard six dinghies which were intercepted mid-way in the Channel by UK Border Force and brought in to Dover.

It came after Saturday witnessed 325 crossings and Friday saw 55.

UK Border Force catamaran Defender has already been in operation in the Channel today and brought scores more migrants ashore – in addition to the confirmed total.

Official totals for today will not be published until later – but it is likely to push the total past the 200,000 mark if, as expected, there are further crossings at high tide.

Scores of migrants who had been picked up by Border Force mid-Channel then disembarked onto the dockside at Dover

At the end of 2018 the then home secretary Sajid Javid declared a ‘national emergency’ when the migrant crossings began to become more frequent – even though by the end of the year fewer than 300 had arrived.

One of Labour’s first acts in office was to scrap the previous government’s Rwanda asylum deal which was designed to deter crossings and save lives.

Two migrants – a 16-year-old girls and a woman in her 20s – died on Sunday while trying to cross the Channel aboard an overcrowded dinghy. Its engine caught fire and they are feared to have been trampled to death amid the ensuing panic.

The International Organisation for Migration puts the total number of deaths associated with Channel crossings since 2018 at 288, including 148 drownings. 

Last month Labour confirmed British taxpayers are to hand the French up to £660million for small boat patrols, pushing the total paid since the start of the crisis past £1.3billion.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood agreed to give Emmanuel Macron’s government a ‘core package’ of £500million – spread over the next three years – to continue funding anti-migrant operations by French police.

A further £160million will also be handed over to fund new tactics by the French including stopping dinghies once they are already in the water.

A previous three-year, £500million deal was agreed in 2023 by then Conservative PM Rishi Sunak and during the lifetime of the agreement more than 84,000 migrants reached Britain.

It was part of £658million in security payments given to France since 2018, a report by the House of Commons Library has set out. 

Last year saw 41,472 migrants reach Britain, the second-highest annual total since the start of the crisis. 

More migrants have arrived under Sir Keir Starmer’s tenure as Prime Minister than under any other PM, with 71,932.

Sir Keir surpassed the previous high of 65,800 under Boris Johnson in February this year.

Under Labour schemes designed to tackle the crisis, Ms Mahmood has also signed off a scheme giving failed asylum seeker families up to £40,000 to return home voluntarily.

They can agree to receive £10,000 per head up to a maximum of £40,000, plus air tickets home. 

But Ms Mahmood has refused to disclose how many families have accepted the offer, and has been accused by the Tories 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 that they would look at upping the financial incentive ‘depending on take-up’.

Most failed asylum seeker families offered the cash are living in migrant hotels at an average cost of £158,000 a year per family.

The scheme was launched on March 5 and the deadline to accept the offer expired on March 12, with Ms Mahmood arguing the cash pay-outs would save money in the long run.

Another Labour scheme – the ‘one in, one out’ deal with the French government – has seen more migrants brought into the UK under the reciprocal terms of the agreement than have been removed.