The number of migrants arriving on UK shores in small boats reached its second-highest total last year since records were started in 2018, government statistics confirmed on Thursday. It comes despite a "one in, one out" scheme designed to send irregular migrants back to France.
With Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer increasingly under pressure over the issue, his Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has proposed a drastic reduction in protections for refugees and the ending of automatic benefits for asylum seekers.
Home Office data showed that a total of 41,472 migrants landed on England's southern coast in 2025 after making the Channel crossing from northern France.
The record of 45,774 arrivals was reached in 2022 under the last Conservative government.
Former Tory prime minister Rishi Sunak vowed to "stop the boats" when he was in power. Ousted by Starmer in July 2024, he later said he regretted the slogan because it was too "binary" and lacked sufficient context "for exactly how challenging" the goal was.
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.
Surge in Channel crossings puts UK-France migrant deal under pressure
'Landmark' French deal
Mahmood has said irregular migration is "tearing our country apart".
In early December, an interior ministry spokesperson called the number of small boat crossings "shameful" and said Mahmood's "sweeping reforms" would remove the incentives driving the arrivals.
A returns deal with France had so far resulted in 153 people being removed from the UK to France and 134 being brought to the UK from France, border security and asylum minister Alex Norris said.
"Our landmark one-in, one-out scheme means we can now send those who arrive on small boats back to France," he said.
Signed in July, it entered into force on 12 August but has been criticised by human rights groups and politicians in France.
Guy Allemand, mayor of Sangatte near Calais, told RFI the deal was "purely political" and "hypocritical".
In October, 17 NGOs filed a complaint with France's highest administrative court calling for the annulment of the scheme, arguing that its principles were inhumane.
French aid groups complain of harassment by British anti-immigration vigilantes
The groups also argued that the agreement should have been submitted to Parliament for ratification prior to publication.
But at the end of December, the court threw out the complaint and said the agreement should stand.
The past year has seen multiple protests in the UK over the housing of migrants in hotels and other issues. Amid growing anti-immigrant sentiment, in September up to 150,000 massed in central London for one of the country's largest ever far-right protests.
Asylum claims in the UK are at a record high, with around 111,000 applications made in the year to June 2025, according to official figures as of mid-November.
(with AFP)
