More than 1,000 small boat migrants have crossed the English Channel illegally since the beginning of the year, GB News can exclusively reveal.
The milestone figure was reached a week ahead of last year, when 1,000 migrants had crossed by 28 January.
On Tuesday morning, two boatloads of migrants made it into UK waters and more than 120 people were taken to the Border Force migrant processing centre at Dover harbour.
GB News has been told that 69 people were onboard one small boat. The second migrant boat was carrying 54 people.
Border Force Hurricane vessel arriving in Dover with migrants
GB News
It takes the provisional number of migrants who have made the illegal crossing from France since the beginning of the year to 1,013.
One senior maritime source told GB News that, despite the unpredictable nature of the Winter weather in the Channel “people smuggling gangs remain unbowed in their determination to plough on with their illegal trade in human cargo”.
He added: “We saw over the Christmas period how thousands of migrants were massing along the northern coast of France to try to get to the UK.
“Since then, close to 3,000 have crossed. But as we speak, many more are heading to the makeshift camps around Dunkirk and Calais and to other pre-arranged locations to await their turn to cross.”
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Migrants arriving in Dover
GB News
Last year, more than 36,800 small boat migrants arrived in UK waters.
The figure was 25 per cent up on 2023 when 29,437 people arrived in small boats.
2024 was also the deadliest year for Channel migrants, with more than 50 deaths.
Already this year, a Syrian migrant died after apparently being crushed to death in an overcrowded migrant boat off the French coast.
The Prime Minister vowed to “smash the gangs” when he took office last July, and has focussed on a law enforcement approach to ending the crisis.
BF Hurricane arrives in Dover Harbour
GB News
Sir Keir Starmer scrapped the previous Government's Rwanda deterrent scheme on his first day in charge, despite many millions having already been spend on the programme.
The Prime Minister described the Rwanda scheme as a “gimmick” and promised his government would invest more in the National Crime Agency and the new Border Security Command to go after the criminal people smuggling gangs in the UK and overseas.
A Home Office spokesman said: “We all want to end dangerous small boat crossings, which threaten lives and undermine our border security.
“The people-smuggling gangs do not care if the vulnerable people they exploit live or die, as long as they pay. We will stop at nothing to dismantle their business models and bring them to justice.”
