Number of migrants arriving in UK after crossing Channel up 25% in 2024
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The number of migrants arriving in the UK in 2024 after crossing the English Channel in small boats was up by a quarter on the previous year, figures show. Some 36,816 people made the journey in 2024, a jump of 25% from the 29,437 who arrived in 2023, according to provisional figures from the Home Office.
The total is down 20% on the record 45,774 arrivals in 2022, however. The last crossings of the year took place on December 29, when 291 people made the journey from France in six boats. The Home Office recorded no further crossings for the remaining two days of 2024, amid blustery weather conditions.
It means 2024 saw the second highest number of arrivals in a year since data on Channel crossings began in 2018. The total was comparatively low in both 2018 (299) and 2019 (1,843), before climbing to 8,466 in 2020, 28,526 in 2021 and a record 45,774 in 2022.
It then fell in 2023 to 29,437, before rising in 2024 to 36,816. The jump in crossings came in a year that former prime minister Rishi Sunak had to accept he failed to meet his vow to “stop the boats” when the Conservatives were defeated by Labour in the general election.
The change in government also meant former home secretary Suella Braverman never got to see her “dream” of sending migrants to Rwanda become reality, after the policy stalled amid legal action and was then ruled unlawful by the Supreme Court. Her successor James Cleverly never succeeded in his bid to get flights off the ground, despite bringing fresh legislation back to Parliament and signing another treaty with the east African nation in a bid to firm up the agreement and satisfy concerns raised by the court.
