Migrant Channel crossings top 4,000 for year so far, Government figures suggest

More than 4,000 migrants are thought to have arrived in the UK so far this year after the busiest day for Channel crossings since the start of 2024.

Home Office figures indicate 514 people made the journey in 10 boats on Wednesday – the highest daily total of the year to date – suggesting an average of 51 people per boat.

It takes the running total for Channel crossings in 2024 to 4,043 – 10% higher than this time last year (3,683). It is also 25% higher than the total at this stage in 2022 when there were 3,229 arrivals recorded, PA news agency analysis of the data indicates.

The government department has stressed that the latest data is provisional, suggesting the numbers could later be revised.

Channel crossings continued on Thursday.

It comes as the Government was dealt another setback in its plan to send migrants to Rwanda with another series of defeats to draft laws in the Lords, piling fresh pressure on ministers in their bid to get flights off the ground.

Meanwhile, a migrant was taken to hospital when he arrived in Dover, Kent, after crossing the Channel, having told police he was stabbed on a French beach before making the journey.

In the wake of the Government’s defeat in the Lords, the Archbishop of Canterbury said there was “no evidence” to support claims the Church of England was “subverting the asylum system” by allowing spurious conversions to Christianity.

The Church has been accused in recent months of allowing “industrial-scale” baptisms of migrants to assist with their asylum claims, allowing them to suggest they would be persecuted in their home country because they were now Christians.

But speaking on Times Radio on Thursday, the Most Reverend Justin Welby said he had seen “no evidence” of this occurring, only “assertions”.

He added: “We wrote to the Home Office and they said they had no evidence to show us.”

The accusations followed claims by former Anglican vicar Matthew Firth, who told The Daily Telegraph he had “put a stop to the conveyor belt and veritable industry of asylum baptisms that was going on”.

Noting that in the last 10 years there had been 15 baptisms in Mr Firth’s parish of people who may have been asylum seekers, the Archbishop said: “If that’s industrial-scale, we have got a small idea of industrial production.”

Mr Welby joined other Anglican bishops and fellow peers to vote again to amend the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill.

It means the legislation will now return to the Commons on April 15 and will not pass before Easter. As a result, plans to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda have been delayed yet again.

The decision not to schedule further votes on the proposed laws before the Commons rises for recess on Tuesday led Labour’s shadow immigration minister Stephen Kinnock to claim the Conservatives were “running scared” and “blocking their own Rwanda Bill”.

But Government ministers have sought to blame Labour for the delays, with Dame Andrea Leadsom telling LBC on Thursday she was “disgusted that Labour tried to stop it in the Lords last night yet again”.

She added: “We’re absolutely determined to get that Bill through. It’s coming back to the Commons on April 15 and we will be overturning the seven amendments in the Lords that we’ve already overturned once this week. We will do it again for the sake of what this country needs, which is to stop illegal migration.”

Sir Keir Starmer said his party was committed to stopping small boats crossing the Channel.

He told Channel 5’s Jeremy Vine: “There’s no ifs or buts. It’s a massive problem and … it gives this sense of having lost control of our borders.

“What I wouldn’t do … is to grandstand or just try and find headlines in relation to gimmicks that won’t work. I think the Rwanda gimmick is a gimmick that won’t work.”

He said it was “not impossible” to take down the people-smuggling gangs, highlighting his plan to work with international law enforcement agencies on the issue.

“Those boats that are being used are being made more or less to order,” Sir Keir said.

“They’re being stored in warehouses in Europe, they’re being brought to the coast in France and people are getting in them. It is not impossible to take down a business model like that. I know it because I’ve done it before.

“But until we do that, we don’t have a foot in the door to deal with this. We’ve got to stop these boats, stop people getting here in the first place, and that means taking down the gangs that are running this vile trade.”

He also pointed to Labour commitments to process asylum claims more quickly to get people out of hotels and work on returns agreements to send migrants back.

In 2023, some 29,437 migrants arrived in the UK after making the journey, down 36% on a record 45,774 arrivals in 2022.