Nearly 120,000 Migrants Crossed English Channel Since 2018

A group of people thought to be illegal immigrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, from a Border Force vessel following a small boat incident in the English Channel on March 30, 2024. (Gareth Fuller/PA Wire)

Almost 120,000 people have been smuggled into the UK on small boats since recording began in 2018, according to an analysis by The Epoch Times of official figures.

That’s around 0.17 percent of the UK’s population.

According to the latest provisional figures published by the Home Office, 349 illegal immigrants made it across the English Channel on Saturday on seven boats, bringing this year’s total to almost 5,000.

So far this year, a total of 4,993 people have been smuggled into the UK on 105 boats across 25 days. More recent figures are provisional and are subject to revision.

By March 26, the number of people making the journey in the first three months of the year had already reached a new record of 4,644.

The last record was set in 2022, when 4,548 people on 147 boats made the journey by March 31. The crossings were made over 28 days.

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In the first three months of 2023, a total of 3,793 Channel-crossing illegal immigrants arrived on 91 boats over 29 days.

The Epoch Times' analysis of Home Office statistics on small boat arrivals in the first three months each year since 2018. (The Epoch Times)

The clandestine crossing of the English Channel began increasing in 2018 and has become the main route of illegal immigration in recent years.

By 2022, nearly 84 percent of illegal immigrants detected during the year were small boat arrivals. The rate dropped to 80.2 percent in 2023.

The Epoch Times analysis of Home Office figures on irregular migration by place of detection between 2018 and 2023. (The Epoch Times)

As of Saturday, some 119,315 people have been smuggled into the UK on small boats since 2018.

That’s 0.27 percent of the projected population for 2024 by the Office for National Statistics, which is 69 million.

Between 2018 and 2023, the total number of known irregular migrants, including people detected on small boats, at the UK’s airports and ports, and in the UK, was 174,977, according to The Epoch Times analysis of Home Office figures. It’s 0.25 percent of the projected population.

During the same six years, there were a total of 32,853 enforced returns, 70,806 voluntary returns, and 115,135 refused entry, according to Home Office figures.

The number of small boat arrivals in 2023 has dropped by more than a third from 2022, with ministers attributing the reduction to its cooperation deals with Albania, France, and other European countries, and rejecting claims that weather conditions may have been a contributing factor.

But the government’s hopes to deter crossings by sending illegal arrivals straight to Rwanda continues to hang by a thread after the House of Lords blew its Rwanda bill wide open for a second time.

The Lords watered down the bill with 10 amendments in early March, which MPs later took back out. But the Lords have reinserted some of the proposals, prolonging the legislative process of the bill.

MPs will consider the bill again after the Easter recess, and the process will continue until the two houses of Parliament agree on a version of the bill.

The prime minister’s fate also hangs in balance with the delay of the Rwanda bill, according to a pollster.

Director of PeoplePolling Matt Goodwin previously told The Epoch Times the policy is “central to Rishi Sunak’s dwindling chances at the next election.”

The Rwanda policy is modelled after a similar scheme in Australia that contributed to its success in stopping migrant boats.

Mr. Sunak has maintained that such a deterrent is essential, calling the Rwanda policy “the only way to properly solve the issue of illegal migration.”

However, Labour calls the policy a “gimmick,” saying it’s too costly and unworkable, with party leader Sir Keir Starmer promising to stop the boats by smashing the smuggling gangs.

Some Conservative MPs who do support the policy, including former Home Secretary Suella Braverman and former immigration minister Robert Jenrick, say the government’s Rwanda bill, even before it was watered down, has left gaps to allow so called legal merry-go-rounds to continue to block deportations.

The Epoch Times has not been able to reach the Home Office.

A previous version of this article misstated the percentages of the population who may be illegal immigrants detected in the past six years. The Epoch Times regrets the error.