Record Number of Boat Migrants Arrive on Christmas Day in Britain

Migrants, picked up at sea by an Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) lifeboat whils
BEN STANSALL/AFP via Getty Images
Kurt Zindulka

A new record of illegal boat migrant arrivals was set on Christmas day in Britain, with the Ministry of Defence reporting that 90 migrants were brought ashore on Sunday.

Capping off a record year for illegal migration in the English Channel, in which over 45,000 have crossed the busy waterway in often dangerously flimsy rubber boats from the beaches of France, a further 90 migrants were brought ashore after crossing in two boats on Christmas day.

This represents a new record for the holiday, topping the previous record set last year when 67 landed on Christmas which broke the former high of 40 in 2018. The increase falls in line with a broader trend of illegals crossing the Channel, with 28,526 recorded arrivals last year, 8,466 in 2020, 1,843 in 2019, and just 299 in 2018.

A spokesman for the Home Office — the department responsible for controlling immigration in Britain — trotted out the standard line once again, saying: “Nobody should put their lives at risk by taking dangerous and illegal journeys.

“We will go further to tackle the gangs driving this, using every tool at our disposal to deter illegal migration and disrupt the business model of people smugglers.”

However, successive Conservative governments have been unable, or indeed unwilling to tackle the ever-growing crisis. This has come with deadly consequences, with four boat migrants, including a teenager losing their lives earlier this month after their people-smuggler-provided craft capsised in the Channel. This came just over a year after 27, including an infant, perished in similar circumstances.

Following the latest tragedy, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak laid out his plan to deal with the growing migrant crisis including the signing of a deal with Albania to speed up the deportations of migrants from the Muslim Balkan country, which has become one of the top countries of origin for illegal migration over the past year.

The government is also planning on ending the controversial hotel scheme that was introduced during the Chinese coronavirus crisis and has seen some 40,000 alleged asylum seekers put up in hundreds of hotels at an estimated cost of £5.5 million per day for the taxpayer.

Crucially, however, the government has refused to take a push back the boats approach with France, despite paying the EU nation hundreds of millions to clamp down on the migrant crossings and people smugglers operating from the beaches of Calais and elsewhere.

While the government won a recent victory at the High Court this month for its scheme to house migrants in the East African nation of Rwanda while their asylum claims are processed, the plan still faces significant legal hurdles including likely challenges at the Supreme Court and European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) which the UK is still bound by despite leaving the EU as the court is technically a separate institution.

Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka

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