UK records busiest December day on record for Channel migrant crossings

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The UK had its busiest December day on record for migrant crossings on Thursday, with more than 600 people making the dangerous journey across the Channel.

It brings the provisional total number of people who have crossed into the UK in small boats to 34,582 for the year so far.

That is more than the 29,090 people who had crossed by this time last year, but down on the 48,821 for the same period in 2022 - a record year for crossings.

Home Office figures show 609 people made the crossing on Thursday in nine boats - the highest number recorded in a single day in December since data started being gathered in 2018.

It is also the highest daily total since 18 October, when 647 migrants arrived.

The frequency of small boat crossings tends to slow down in late Autumn and into winter when temperatures drop and wind and sea conditions typically worsen.

Temperatures were around 9C in the Channel on Thursday, while wind speeds dipped slightly, following eight days of fairly poor conditions in which no crossings were made.

Groups of people wearing life jackets were pictured being brought ashore from a Border Force boat in Dover.

People were seen being driven away from the Kent port town in coaches on Friday as crossings continued.

Responding to the number of people making crossings, Downing Street said: "Of course, these numbers need to be reduced."

A spokesperson said overhauling the UK's "broken" asylum system was a "priority" for the government, but that it had "inherited chaos" from the previous government.

"We put in place a serious credible plan to bring order to the asylum system by smashing smuggling gangs through our new Border Security Command, tackling the problem upstream with greater international collaboration and ramping up returns of those with no right to be here," the spokesperson said.

On Tuesday, UK officials joined counterparts from Germany, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands for a meeting of the so-called Calais Group, where they agreed a series of commitments to tackle people smuggling gangs in 2025.

Germany has pledged to tighten laws to make it easier to prosecute people smugglers enabling Channel crossings as part of a new deal between the UK and Berlin.

Meanwhile, the UK government has suspended making decisions on asylum applications from Syrians following the collapse of the Assad regime.

Syrians made up 9% of small boat arrivals in terms of nationality in the year to June 2024, according to figures from the Home Office.

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