Illegal entries via different routes are information provided by the Home Office suggests there have been at least 76,000 people detected illegally entering the UK by different routes, including hiding in the back of vehicles, by small boat and via air arrivals without documentation.
The 32,000 who have arrived by small boat since the start of 2018 accounted for less than half of the total since 2018, although the number of people entering after illegal maritime events has nearly tripled this year compared with last year, from 7,700 by 9 November last year, to 21,600 in 2021 so far.
The 2021 figure below includes the 21,600 who have come via small boat and a reported 9,000 who entered while hidden in vehicles so far this year (see media report) – totalling over 30,000, or 13,500 higher than last year.
Table 1 / Figure 1: Arrivals by mode of entry (Main source: Home Office policy statement, March 2021, p. 7). NB this does not include probable visa and non-visa overstayers, which the former independent borders watchdog suggested could be running at as much as 300,000 per year (see our briefing paper on this topic).
