Number of small boat migrants to UK tops 200,000: official figures

LONDON: More than 200,000 migrants have arrived on UK shores in small boats since records began in 2018, latest government statistics showed.

The tally comes as the anti-immigration party Reform UK surged Thursday in local elections dominated by national issues including immigration.

Home Office figures published on Saturday showed 70 people arrived in one boat on Friday.

The northern French coast is the main point of departure for migrants hoping to reach Britain, usually risking the journey in flimsy, overcrowded boats.

Friday’s crossing pushed the total number of arrivals since current data began to 200,013.

The figure is calculated using the government’s official statistics for 2018 to 2025 and provisional figures recorded so far this year.

Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer is increasingly under pressure over the issue.

His interior minister Shabana Mahmood has proposed cutting back on protections for refugees and ending automatic benefits for asylum seekers.

At least 29 migrants died at sea attempting the crossing in 2025, according to an AFP tally based on official French and British sources. A further six people have died this year.

Britain and France last month agreed a new three-year deal in an attempt to stop undocumented migrants making the risky journey, with France pledging to ramp up law enforcement and Britain promising hundreds of millions of euros to fund the effort.

Last year a total of 41,472 migrants landed on England’s southern shore after making the crossing from northern France.

The record of 45,774 arrivals was recorded in 2022 under Conservative ex-prime minister Rishi Sunak, who vowed to “stop the boats” when he was in power.

Adopting his own “smash the gangs” slogan, Starmer pledged to tackle the problem by dismantling the people smuggling networks running the crossings but has so far had no more success than his predecessor.