Since the beginning of the year, more than 26,000 migrants have come to Great Britain in small boats on the life-threatening journey across the English Channel. Almost a thousand are now discovered in a single day. All attempts to contain the migration movement have so far failed.
In just 24 hours, almost 1,000 migrants have crossed the English Channel to Britain in small boats. As announced by the Ministry of Defense in London, 960 people on 20 boats were discovered during the dangerous crossing on Saturday. According to this, the total number of migrants who have crossed the Channel has already risen to over 26,000 since the beginning of the year. The previous annual high from 2021 is 28,500.
On Friday, 221 people had reached Great Britain via the English Channel. The number of migrants crossing the straits towards Britain had increased significantly since 2018. At that time, the authorities began to exercise much tighter controls on the French port of Calais and the Channel Tunnel between France and Great Britain. Most recently, the number of migrants from Albania in particular had gone up.
A UK Parliament report concludes that up to 60,000 people may cross the Channel by the end of the year. The conservative British government has so far tried in vain to reduce the number of crossings. Among other things, London is paying the French government millions to increase coastal surveillance.
London has also tightened its migration policy. Among other things, the government concluded an agreement with Rwanda that allows migrants who have arrived in Great Britain to be deported to the East African country after their arrival. So far, however, not a single migrant has been sent to Rwanda: a flight planned for June was canceled at short notice following a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights. The candidates to succeed Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss, have promised to stick to the plans anyway.
