Channel crossings continue as migrants risk sea journey
PEOPLE continued to risk making the perilous journey across the English Channel to the UK yesterday, with numbers for 2021 now approaching the entire figure for 2020.
More than 8,000 migrants have succeeded in making the dangerous trip so far this year, according to data analysis by the PA news agency.
Men, women and children, many of whom have fled violence, torture and persecution, regularly set off from France packed on board unseaworthy dinghies, often after paying people-smugglers.
On Monday, at least 430 people made the journey, a new record for a single day.
High numbers of migrants continue to risk their lives in their bid to cross the 21-mile Dover Strait, despite Home Secretary Priti Patel’s vow to make the route “unviable”.
More people reached Britain yesterday, with multiple beach landings at Dungeness, and others arriving at Dover, further along the coast.
With more than 8,000 people having crossed to the UK on board small boats so far this year, 2021 is nearing the total annual figure of 8,417 reached in 2020, PA analysis shows.
Numbers of crossings have shot up in recent years, with last year’s total more than quadrupling the number of arrivals in 2019. Despite this, the UK continues to see fewer boat arrivals and asylum claims than many of its European counterparts.
At least 44,230 people have arrived in Europe via the Mediterranean by land and sea so far this year, according to data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Also, despite the sharp rise in small boats arrivals on the south coast, asylum applications in the UK fell in 2020 to 29,456.