Revealed: Number of migrants arriving in the UK via small boat crossings over the Channel has risen 86% compared to last year's figures

  • The Home Office yesterday reported that there were 204 arrivals on Tuesday
  • The 2023 rally so far is 2,513, compared to 1,352 recorded at this point last year  

The number of migrants arriving in the UK after travelling across the Channel by small boats so far this year is running 86 per cent above last year’s figures.

The Home Office yesterday reported 204 arrivals on Tuesday, bringing the 2023 tally to 2,517.

At the same point last year there were 1,352. The Government is preparing new laws to tackle the crisis, with an immigration Bill expected in weeks.

Rishi Sunak has vowed the legislation will ensure illegal migrants ‘will not be able to stay’, and the ‘vast majority’ who cross the Channel will be deported.

Previously he has pledged the Government will ‘stop the boats’ as one of five key pledges to voters. 

The number of migrants arriving in the UK after travelling across the Channel by small boats so far this year is running 86 per cent above last year’s figures

The number of migrants arriving in the UK after travelling across the Channel by small boats so far this year is running 86 per cent above last year’s figures

It has been reported that the new Bill will include measures to curtail migrants’ options for lodging legal challenges against deportation. 

Two sets of proposals are said to have been drawn up which are likely to pit ministers against the courts. 

The first and most radical would prevent all migrants arriving on small boats from requesting a judicial review of their exclusion from the asylum system. 

The second would allow legal challenges to be lodged only once the migrant has been removed from the UK.

Border Force officials escort 50 migrants into Dover Docks, Kent on February 12, 2023

Border Force officials escort 50 migrants into Dover Docks, Kent on February 12, 2023

Measures on limiting claims about human rights and modern slavery are also thought to be under consideration.

A record 45,728 migrants arrived in the UK on small boats last year compared to 2021’s total of 28,526. 

Officials have predicted the number this year could reach 80,000. 

A Home Office spokesman said laws were being introduced ‘which will ensure that those people arriving in the UK illegally are detained and swiftly removed to another country’.

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