Between 2020 and the end of September 2024, around 175,000 unauthorised arrivals were recorded by authorities. The government has toughened up guidance for refugees, making it more difficult for those who arrive here in small boats across the Channel to obtain citizenship. The Home Office’s good character guidance now states that an applicant will “normally” be refused citizenship if they entered the UK illegally – no matter how long they have lived in the UK.
It makes particular reference to those who arrived “having made a dangerous journey”, including those “travelling by small boat or concealed in a vehicle”. The changes come after the government released footage of migrants being escorted onto planes and deported on Monday. Home secretary Yvette Cooper warned it will be “governments and not gangs” deciding who gets to enter the country. Some 18,987 people, including foreign criminals and those not eligible for asylum, have been returned to countries across Europe, Asia, Africa and South America since Labour took power in July.
According to the Home Office, 5,074 were forced returns of people with no legal right to remain in the UK, up 24 per cent between 5 July last year and 31 January, compared with 4,089 forced returns in the previous 12-month period. Here, The Independent takes a look at how many illegal migrants the UK is hosting, and why calculating the exact number is a complicated process. There are four main ways for a person to become an unauthorised migrant in the UK.
Firstly, by entering the country on a visa and overstaying the conditions of the visa; Secondly, entering the UK without authorisation or through deception, such as using forged documents. Thirdly, by not leaving the country after an asylum application has been rejected and fourthly, being born in the UK to parents who are unauthorised migrants because the UK does not have birthright citizenship. It is difficult to calculate exactly how many illegal or unauthorised migrants there are in the UK. Those trying to do so face the challenge of attempting to count individuals who don’t want to be found.
Small boats are the main way irregular migrants are entering the country since 2020, according to the Home Office. The government saw a decline in other methods such as inadequately documented air arrivals and detections at ports due to the Covid pandemic making air or ferry entry less viable. Between 2020 and the end of September 2024, around 175,000 unauthorised arrivals were recorded by the authorities. Of these, 78 per cent arrived in the UK after crossing the Channel in a small boat.
Small boat arrivals typically peak during the summer months (Q3 of each year), however, this is not always the case. The government does not make comparisons between shorter periods where arrival numbers may fluctuate considerably. The most common small vessels detected making these types of crossings are rigid-hulled inflatable boats (RHIBs), dinghies and kayaks. Since the beginning of 2025, 1292 migrants have arrived on small boats into the UK.
Around 70 per cent of irregular migrants arriving into the UK since 2018 have been adult men and just under one-fifth (19 per cent) of detected irregular arrivals have been children aged 17 and under, according to the Home Office. Just under one-sixth, 15 per cent, of detected irregular arrivals in the year ending September 2024 were Afghans, the nationality in the top 5 for all 4 entry methods. The number of Afghan nationals arriving by small boats have almost halved, 46 per cent, in the year ending September 2024.
Albanians were the top nationality detected arriving by small boat in the year ending September 2022 (12,024 arrivals), but their numbers have since declined to only 559 small boat arrivals in the year ending September 2024. The large number of 2022 arrivals was in part influenced by an agreement between the UK and Albania to deter and disrupt irregular migration and criminal networks, according to the Home Office.
Government statistics show arrivals by Vietnamese nationals in January to September 2024 (3,132 arrivals) were almost 3 times higher than in the same period of 2023 (1,131 arrivals). In April 2024, the UK signed an agreement with Vietnam to increase cooperation on dealing with irregular migration. A study by Measuring Irregular Migration found the UK had the second highest number of unauthorised migrants in Europe after Germany.
Another two previous studies conducted across the EU in 2008 and 2017 also showed the UK had more unauthorised migrants than most other European countries. Along with Italy and France, the four countries make up 70 per cent of all Europe’s unauthorised migrants. Labour’s new Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, which scraps the Conservatives’ Rwanda plan, passed its first hurdle in the Commons on Monday.
