Migrant Channel crossings reach 50,000 since Labour took office

The number of migrants crossing the Channel since Labour came to power has passed the significant milestone, as ITV News Political Reporter Jasmine Cameron-Chileshe explains

More than 50,000 migrants have arrived in the UK after crossing the English Channel since Labour came into office.

Home Office figures showed on Monday that 474 migrants have arrived by small boat since July 2024.

Speaking on Tuesday morning, government minister Baroness Jacqui Smith described the numbers as an “enormous problem,” saying she understood the public’s “concern”.

Pointing to the government’s recently implemented returns deal with France, Smith said the government remained determined to bring the number of crossings down.

The Home Office released images earlier this month showing the first migrants detained under the new France-UK deal. / Credit: Home Office

Earlier this month, the government began detaining migrants under a new “one in, one out” deal with France.

Under the scheme, some migrants who crossed the Channel illegally will be detained and returned to France in exchange for asylum seekers with links to the UK.

The scheme is currently being piloted, and the UK government hopes to expand it further. Critics say the number of migrants being returned remains a long way off what is needed to either bring the numbers down or serve as a legitimate deterrent.

The government will not confirm how many migrants this involves, although it has previously been reported that the number stands close to 50 a week.

“We need to build camps,” says Kemi Badenoch in response to the number of migrants currently arriving in the UK

There have been 27,029 arrivals so far this year, which is 47% higher than the same point of 2024 when the figure stood at 18,342, and 67% higher than 2023’s figure of 16,170.

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp described those crossing the Channel as “an invasion”.

Reacting to the milestone being reached, Philp, the Conservative MP for Croydon South, said: “Labour has surrendered our borders, and the consequences are being felt in our communities, from rising crime to shocking cases of rape and sexual assault by recent arrivals.”

ITV News filmed a small boat of people assumed to be migrants crossing the Channel on Monday morning.

Speaking from the Isle of Wight, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch claimed that if she were in office, she could bring the numbers down “very quickly”.

She went on to say Labour lacked a deterrence as she called for the return of the previous Conservative government’s Rwanda scheme, where migrants’ asylum claims would have been processed in the African country, with successful applicants being granted leave to remain in Rwanda.

Pushed on whether the Conservatives could reduce Channel crossings to zero, Badenoch said, “I think that we can,” adding, “It wouldn’t happen straight away, but it would happen quickly”.

Badenoch said, “My team are now looking at what we can do in terms of detention centres, but stopping people from coming here in the first place – if they think they’re going to be sent to Rwanda and not get here, get a free hotel, get benefits, then they won’t come here.”