A record 973 migrants crossed the Channel on Saturday to reach the United Kingdom illegally on makeshift boats, according to London.
Four of them died at sea.
A sad record. No fewer than 973 migrants crossed the Channel on Saturday to reach the United Kingdom illegally on makeshift dinghies, according to figures published by the British Home Office. The previous record dates from last June, with more than 882 crossings.
These 973 arrivals, which were announced on Sunday, bring to 26,612 the number of migrants who have reached English shores this year, mainly from France. These crossings took place on the same day that a two-year-old child, a woman and two men were killed in two incidents off the French coast.
Deadly year
A series of shipwrecks has made 2024 the deadliest year since the beginning in 2018 of the phenomenon of crossings aboard makeshift inflatable boats (called small boats), in response to the increasingly tight locking of access to the tunnel under the Channel and the port of Calais.
Elected in July, the British government of Labor Keir Starmer promised to tackle illegal immigration by increasing the number of expulsions of migrants and fighting against smugglers. According to the British authorities, makeshift boats are increasingly loaded, with 52 passengers on average compared to only 13 in 2020.
Between June 2023 and June 2024, 18% of people arriving by these boats were from Afghanistan, a figure in sharp decline, followed by Iran (13%) and Vietnam (10%).
