Downing Street has backed the home secretary on Tuesday and rejected the suggestion that weather conditions may have contributed to the reduction in channel crossings in 2023.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s official spokesman said there were a similar amount of days when there were poor weather conditions for sailing last year compared to the year before.
According to official figures, the number of detected illegal immigrants who reached Dover by small boats went down by nearly 36 percent in 2023.
Ministers have hailed the government’s returns or cooperation deals with Albania and other European countries, but a union representing Border Force officials said the reduction was probably a “glitch,” with bad weather playing a role.
Lucy Moreton, officer at The Union for Borders, Immigration, and Customs, told BBC Radio 4’s “Today” programme on Monday that the planning assumption is that the number in the coming year won’t be back to the peak level in 2022 but will be higher than the 2023 level, adding that the border force continues to need resources.
Home Secretary James Cleverly rejected the claim on Tuesday, telling BBC Breakfast that the reduction has “nothing to do with the weather.”
“I know this is a convenient way of overlooking the incredibly hard work our officials have done with their colleagues across Europe. This is not about the weather,” he said.
Downing Street later said it doesn’t believe the weather was the determining factor in reducing small boat crossings by 36 percent.
“In fact, that assertion is not backed by the facts,” Mr. Sunak’s spokesman said.
“There were 106 ‘red days’ in 2022, 102 in 2023. And we are bucking the trend of what we are seeing in Europe, where crossings are up significantly, he said, adding that ”red days” are days when there were poor weather conditions for sailing.
Small boats have become the main route illegal immigrants enter the UK in recent years, with the number peaking in 2022 at 45,755 people.
The Epoch Times analysis of Home Office’s provisional figures show the total number of illegal immigrants who came on small boats last year was 29,437, down by 35.7 percent compared to 2022.
The number of boats was 602, down 45.8 percent compared to 2022, suggesting people came on larger or more crowded boats.
The crossings last year were distributed over 140 days, compared to 162 days in 2022, representing a 13.6 percent reduction.
The government has also been forced to defend its record on the process of asylum applications process as critics disputed the claim that legacy claims have been cleared.
The Home Office declared on Tuesday that it had delivered Mr. Sunak’s pledge to “abolish” legacy asylum backlog—claims made before June 28, 2022—by the end of 2023, despite 4,537 “complex cases” remaining undecided.
Labour’s shadow immigration minister Stephen Kinnock, accused the government of “cooking the books” because of the remaining cases and the rising amount of cases that were treated as “withdrawn.”
Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper also disputed the claim, writing on X, formerly known as Twitter, “Not even cleared ‘legacy backlog’—4,500 cases not done, 17,000 ‘withdrawn’ by the Home Office but they’ve no idea where those people are.”
Home Office guidance published in February last year said legacy claimants who had not had an interview would instead be given 20 to 30 days to fill a questionnaire, and those who fail to return the questionnaire within 30 days and don’t apply for a further extension may have their applications treated as “withdrawn.”
The latest Home Office data show a total of 6,068 cases were treated as “withdrawn” in the first quarter of 2023, compared to 1,652 cases in the previous quarter.
Alp Mehmet, the chairman of Migration Watch UK, a think tank which argues for lower migration, also said the government is “playing fast and loose with the figures.”
Mr. Mehmet criticised the 67 percent asylum grant rate, which the prime minister said was lower than the rates in the previous two years, saying the rate was “a lenient exception compared to most of Europe and almost three times the rate in France.”
He also questioned whether the government knew where “the 25,550 who were refused asylum are now.”
The prime minister’s spokesman told reporters the government has been “very transparent” about what the claim entails.
