The number of illegal migrants recorded crossing the English Channel in people smuggler-operated small boats since the start of the year has surpassed 40,000.
In a significant blow to the government of Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, which rose to power last year in large part as a result of the former Tory government’s feckless response to the migrant crisis, illegal boat migration has continued to rise under his leadership.
After a reprieve from illegal arrivals due to inclement weather over the past month, 737 migrants on 11 boats successfully reached British shores over the weekend. According to calculations from the PA News agency, this takes the total for the year to 40,029.
PA noted that it was the first time that numbers surpassed the 40k milestone since 2022 when 45,755 illegals reached the UK over the waterway from France. While arrivals declined in 2023 to 29,347, they started to rise again last year when 36,816 successfully made the journey.
More than 700 migrants crossed the English Channel on Saturday bringing the total for the year so far to 40,029 and ending a 28-day run of no vessels making the crossing.
Despite British governments committing around a billion pounds sterling in payouts to France to prevent migrant crossings, Paris has continually refused to allow migrant boats to be pushed back to French beaches, citing concern for the safety of migrants on board.
The French Maritime Prefect said in a statement: “Given the structural fragility of systematically overloaded boats, the choice is made not to force migrants to embark on the (French) state’s rescue means, to avoid endangering their lives in the event of a shipwreck.”
Meanwhile, the supposed landmark agreement struck between British Prime Minister Sir Kier Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron to finally allow for return of illegal to France in exchange for the UK accepting asylum seekers has only managed to remove a few dozen illegals from Britain since the “one in, one out” scheme was agreed to in July.
The surging number of illegals will also likely raise questions about Prime Minister Starmer’s central policy of supposedly “smashing the gangs” of people smugglers operating on both sides of the English Channel, while refusing to enforce pushbacks and abandoning the previous Tory scheme to send illegals immediately to asylum detention centres in Rwanda.
Instead, the Labour government has continued using migrant hotels to house the continuing waves of illegals and is set to expand the use of military sites to deal with further arrivals.
The practice of government contractors block booking hotels to house mostly young male migrants in towns and cities across Britain has sparked months of protests after an Ethiopian illegal sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl in Epping over the summer just days after being put up in the Bell hotel by the government.
While local officials in Epping sued the government in London to attempt to shut down the migrant hotel, Downing Street successfully convinced judges to keep it operational, arguing that local concerns for safety are outweighed by the duty of the government to provide accommodation to supposed asylum seekers.
Protests continued over the weekend Crowborough where the Home Office is planning to house some 540 male migrants in a former military training camp. Locals have protested six times since November over concerns for the safety of their women and girls, yet the government claims that it is necessary to house migrants in the camp to disincentivize further illegals coming to Britain.
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