LONDON: The number of irregular migrants arriving in Britain on small boats is set to increase in 2024, figures showed on Wednesday, putting pressure on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to crack down on the dangerous Channel crossing.
Immigration, both irregular and regular, was a major issue in July’s general election, which brought Labor to power but also saw a breakthrough for Nigel Farage’s hard-right Reform UK party.
About 36,816 people were detected in the channel last year, a 25 percent increase from the 29,437 people expected in 2023, according to provisional figures from the Ministry of Interior.
The 2024 total, however, was well below the record 45,774 undocumented migrants who arrived on UK shores in the same boats in 2022.
At least 76 deaths were recorded in around 20 accidents last year, making it the deadliest year for migrants who are taking ever greater risks to evade UK border controls.
At least 5,800 people were rescued at sea last year and more than 870 were tried by authorities, according to French officials.
Starmer has promised to crack down on crossings after Labor returned to government following his election win after 14 years in opposition.
After entering office, he scrapped the former Conservative government’s controversial scheme to send illegal immigrants to Rwanda, calling it “a gimmick”.
Instead, he has promised to “crush the gangs” of people smugglers who walk the crossings and has signed several agreements with foreign countries to cooperate with law enforcement. He has described smuggling networks as “a global security threat like terrorism”.
The latest figures mean last year was the second highest number of annual arrivals since data collection at the crossing began in 2018. A total of over 150,000 people have arrived by boat over the past seven years.
In the first nine months of last year, Afghans were the single largest group of migrant arrivals, accounting for 17 percent of the total. People from Vietnam, Iran, and Syria were the next largest groups.
Vietnamese immigrants appear to fuel an increase in crossings in 2024. They accounted for just five percent of arrivals in 2023, down from 13 percent in January-September 2024.
Madeleine Sumption, director of the Migration Observatory at Oxford University, said it is often not possible to determine why numbers fluctuate.