A record 1,295 people crossed the Channel in small boats on Monday, heightening concern that the Home Office’s aggressive policies have failed to curb the numbers making dangerous journeys to the UK.
It was the highest number in a single day since records began in 2018, surpassing 1,185 on a day in November last year. The Ministry of Defence said 27 boats made the crossing on Monday.
The latest figures come despite increasingly aggressive and expensive policies from Priti Patel’s department. This year, she has struck a £120m deal to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, has asked Royal Navy vessels to rescue boats in UK waters, and has threatened to turn boats around and send them back to France.
Enver Solomon, the chief executive of the Refugee Council, said: “It is clear this government’s cruel and nasty plan to treat people as human cargo by sending them to Rwanda is doing absolutely nothing to stop people feeling forced to cross the Channel.
“That is because these dreadful plans fail to address the reasons people come in the first place. The very high numbers of people crossing the Channel are men, women and children fleeing war and oppression in countries like Afghanistan and Syria who have no choice but to make desperate, terrifying journeys to find safety.
“The government’s own statistics show that three-quarters of asylum cases are granted refugee protection here. These are people who have endured unimaginable danger and trauma and simply want to be safe.”
In Dover on Monday, the threats did not appear to have put off people from seeking refuge in the UK. Babies and several other young children, some wrapped in blankets and wearing woollen hats, were among the people seen being brought ashore. Life vests were pictured lying in piles on the Kent dockside after dinghies and other vessels were intercepted in the Channel.
The crossings came after a three-day hiatus between Friday and Sunday when no arrivals were recorded.
This year to date, more than 22,600 people have arrived in the UK after navigating busy shipping lanes from France in small boats such as dinghies, the figures suggest. At the equivalent point in 2021, the cumulative total was just under 12,500.
Patel has said the five-year trial signed in the spring with the Rwandan government will discourage asylum seekers from crossing the Channel. So far no asylum seekers have been sent to Rwanda, which has already spent an initial £120m handed over by the UK.
Patel and Boris Johnson have said Rwanda is a safe destination for people seeking refuge in the UK and that “tens of thousands” will be flown 4,000 miles and told to set up a new life in central Africa.
However, the high court in London heard this month that an official at the Foreign Office who had expertise on Rwanda raised concerns about torture and extrajudicial killings of political opponents of the regime.
“There are state control, security, surveillance structures from the national level down,” the official wrote. “Political opposition is not tolerated and arbitrary detention, torture and even killings are accepted methods of enforcing control too.”
A report from the home affairs select committee last month found that the rise in crossings “may be attributed to scaremongering from people traffickers that because of new regulations coming in across the Channel it will be much harder to access the UK in future, so they had better get on with it”.
Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, the two candidates to succeed Johnson as prime minister, have said they will stick with the Rwanda scheme. However, there is growing speculation that Patel will be replaced at the Home Office under the new prime minister.
A government spokesperson said: “Our new Nationality and Borders Act is breaking these evil criminals business model, through tougher sentences for those who facilitate illegal entry into the country, with 38 people already arrested and facing further action since it became law.”
