Channel migrant numbers pass 5,000 for the year so far

Channel migrant numbers pass 5,000 for the year so far – DOWN more than 1,000 on same time in 2022 as ministers brace for showdown with Tory rebels demanding Rishi Sunak’s new anti-boats law is toughened to stop European judges’ meddling

• Some 113 people detected on Monday, taking provisional 2023 total to 5,049
• At the equivalent point last year, the number of crossings stood at 6,300

The number of migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats has passed 5,000 for the year so far, official figures have revealed.

Some 113 people were detected on Monday, taking the provisional total for 2023 to 5,049, according to the Home Office.

However, the landmark has taken longer to reach this year than last. At the equivalent point last year, the number of crossings stood at just over 6,300. 

Three boats were detected on Monday, which suggests an average of around 38 people crossed the Channel per boat.

In total 45,755 people crossed what is one of the world’s busiest waterways in small boats in 2022.

It comes as Rishi Sunak faces pressure from backbenchers to toughen up his anti-migrant laws to prevent European judges from intervening.

Members of the backbench Tory Common Sense Group met the Prime Minister for breakfast in No10 this morning. 

Some 113 people were detected on Monday, taking the provisional total for 2023 to 5,049, according to the Home Office.

It comes as Rishi Sunak faces pressure from backbenchers to toughen up his anti-migrant laws to prevent European judges from intervening.

Members of the backbench Tory Common Sense Group, led by Sir John Hayes (pictured) met the Prime Minister for breakfast in No10 this morning.

Downing Street said there was no ‘quick fix’ to meet the Prime Minister’s promise to stop the boats.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said it would require a ‘combination of a number of different approaches from the Government’ to ‘solve this long-standing problem’.

Those measures included ‘the partnership with Rwanda’ and the Illegal Migration Bill.

The spokesman said: ‘While we are confident that some of the elements already introduced – stepping up the partnership with the French government to increase intercepts in the Channel – is having an impact, we know that this will be an incremental approach.’

It was ‘too early to draw conclusions at this stage’ about the impact of the Government’s announcements ‘given we know the impact the weather can have on weekly, even daily, crossings’.

‘It will be the culmination of the introduction of all the different policies we are introducing which will have the long-lasting impact the public wants.’

Last week, Mr Sunak admitted that his plans to stop boats crossing the Channel ‘won’t happen overnight’ and declined to promise they could be completed by the next general election.

Nearly 45,000 migrants have arrived in the UK after crossing the Channel since the Government signed the Rwanda deal just over a year ago.

Suella Braverman told of her ‘dream’ of seeing the Government’s plan to send migrants to the east African nation succeed after she was appointed Home Secretary, a policy which High Court judges ruled is lawful but has so far been stalled by legal action.

Her predecessor Priti Patel signed the agreement – which she described as a ‘world-first’ – with Rwanda on April 14 last year.

There were 44,976 migrants recorded arriving in the UK after crossing the Channel between April 15 2022 and April 17 2023, according to analysis of Government figures by the PA news agency.

In November, Home Office permanent secretary Matthew Rycroft confirmed Britain had already paid Rwanda £140 million under the deal but said he was still unsure whether the policy was value for money.

The battle over the legality of the policy continues, with a four-day hearing listed at the Court of Appeal next week.

The Prime Minister pledged to ‘stop the boats’ as one of his five main priorities while in office.

In an interview with ConservativeHome on Thursday, Mr Sunak said the immigration issue is ‘complicated’ with ‘no single, simple solution’.

He said he expects a legal battle over the ‘novel, untested’ and ‘ambitious’ Illegal Migration Bill, which is going through Parliament, and confirmed there ‘may well be’ an interim judgment from the European Court of Human Rights against the policy, as happened with the Rwanda scheme.

The Government has vowed to change the law to make it clear people arriving in the UK illegally will not be allowed to stay, either facing deportation back to their home country or a nation like Rwanda where a deal is in place.

Attempts by ministers and officials to use a former RAF base in Essex to house asylum seekers are also set to end up in court.

Braintree District Council said it has been granted an injunction hearing at the High Court on Wednesday and the Home Office has agreed not to move any migrants on to the Wethersfield site until after that date.

Source: Read Full Article