Migrants cross English Channel to UK for first time this year

Politics

Migrants crossing the English Channel to the UK have been reported for the first time in 2024.

Arrivals have not been recorded since 16 December, according to Home Office figures, with poor weather conditions potentially contributing to the lack of activity at sea.

On Saturday, a group of people believed to be migrants were brought to shore in Dover, Kent, in the morning.

They were seen arriving in a Border Force vessel.

Previously there were 26 days of no crossings to the UK recorded up until 11 January.

This was the longest gap in small boat arrivals for five years.

The provisional annual total for 2023, 29,437, is 36% lower than the record 45,774 crossings for the whole of 2022.

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It is still the second-highest annual total on record, above the figure for 2021 (28,526).

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