Last year’s full-year total was down 36% from 2022’s record total
London:
More than 4,600 asylum seekers have arrived in Britain by small boats so far in 2024, setting a new record for the first three months of the year and leaving Prime Minister Rishi Sunak facing a new political headache.
Provisional Home Office figures on Wednesday showed that as of March 26 this year, 4,644 people had been detected crossing the English Channel in small boats such as inflatable boats.
This compares to 3,770 in the same period last year and 4,162 in 2022, a record high.
Sunak hopes his flagship plan to deport people arriving in the UK without permission to Rwanda will stop people making the dangerous cross-Channel crossing. Legislation aimed at getting the scheme up and running is due to return to parliament next month after a series of legal setbacks.
A Home Office spokesman said last week: “The number of people continuing to cross the Channel is unacceptable and illustrates exactly why we must start flights to Rwanda as soon as possible.”
“We continue to work closely with French police, whose beaches are facing increasing violence and destruction, and who work tirelessly to stop these dangerous, illegal and unnecessary trips.”
Last year’s full-year total was 36% down on 2022’s record total, leading Sunak to claim the government was starting to succeed in “stopping the boats”, his main priority ahead of an election expected later this year one.
But the latest addition will increase pressure on Sunak, whose Conservative Party trails the opposition Labor Party far behind in opinion polls and with immigration a major concern for some voters.
Labour’s immigration spokesman Stephen Kinnock said: “Despite all evidence to the contrary, Rishi Sunak keeps telling the British people that the number of small boat arrivals is falling and he has pledged to stop them Still being fulfilled.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
