Record number of migrants cross English Channel in first three months of year
Some 5,847 arrivals had been recorded as of March 23, compared with 5,435 arrivals across January, February and March in 2024.
The number of migrants arriving in the UK after crossing the English Channel has set a new record for the first three months of the year.
There have been 5,847 arrivals so far in 2025, including 335 on Sunday, according to provisional Home Office figures.
This is already higher than the 5,435 migrants who arrived across January, February and March in 2024 – at the time, a record for the first quarter of a calendar year.
It is also well above the 3,793 arrivals in the first three months of 2023 and the 4,548 in the equivalent period in 2022.
The figures come as the Government has vowed to crack down on people smuggling with plans to introduce new criminal offences and hand counter terror-style powers to police and enforcement agencies to curb Channel crossings.
Last week, the French coastguard confirmed two migrants died in two days attempting to cross the Channel on Wednesday and Thursday.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “We all want to end dangerous small boat crossings, which threaten lives and undermine our border security.
“The people-smuggling gangs do not care if the vulnerable people they exploit live or die, as long as they pay.
“We will stop at nothing to dismantle their business models and bring them to justice.”
