5,000 migrants cross Channel in just three months

MORE than 5,000 small-boat migrants have arrived in Britain so far this year.

Home Office figures showed 349 migrants were intercepted in the Channel and ferried to Dover by UK Border Force on Saturday.

It brought the total for this year to 4,993, with more than 300 arrivals aboard at least eight dinghies yesterday taking the figure past 5,000.

It marks the first time since the Channel crisis began more than five years ago that the milestone has been passed before the end of March.

Numbers so far this year even exceed arrivals in January to March 2022, the year that went on to see a record annual total of more than 45,700 arrivals.

The 5,000 mark was not passed until April 17 last year and April 13 the year before that.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has promised to ‘stop the boats’ but his emergency legislation designed to finally implement the Rwanda asylum scheme was blocked by the House of Lords.

It means the legislation will not resume its final parliamentary stages until April 15. In early January, Home Secretary James Cleverly set out an ‘unambiguous’ target to cut Channel small-boats to zero this year.

He made the pledge after a 36 per cent year- on-year dip in 2023 – but the latest data for this year suggests the trend has gone into reverse.

Labour’s immigration spokesman Stephen Kinnock yesterday accused the Government of ‘complacency’. But minister for illegal immigration Michael Tomlinson said: ‘Tories have

‘Need to stick to our plan’

brought arrivals down by a third and 24,000 people were returned last year. We need to stick to our plan, or we will go back to square one with Labour.’

In a separate development, churches have been warned by Mr Cleverly not to allow asylum seekers to exploit the system by converting to Christianity.

Mr Cleverly’s comments came after the Mail revealed concerns over churches helping to secure asylum status for the Clapham chemical attacker Abdul Ezedi.