On Sunday, the Home Office stated that 616 people traveling in 12 boats had been detected crossing the Channel from France to the UK. These numbers exceed the previous daily high of 497 people on April 22 this year.

The total number of migrants entering the UK by boat this year has reached around 8,000, compared to more than 10,000 at the same point in the previous year. In 2022, the total number of Channel crossings stood at 45,755.

On a visit to Dover last week, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said that these figures show that his plan has successfully reduced the number of crossings by 20%, indicating his policy is working.

Mr Sunak made the number of Channel crossings a key focus of his premiership, including trying to stop them via the Illegal Migration Bill which is currently making its way through parliament.

The legislation bars asylum claims by anyone who reaches the UK by unauthorized means, and compels officials to detain and then deport refugees and migrants "to their home country or a safe third country," such as Rwanda. Once deported, they would be banned from ever re-entering the UK.

Under the proposed legislation, migrants and refugees would also be barred from claiming asylum, regardless of their circumstances, this would vulnerable persons such as victims of trafficking or modern slavery.

Also read: UK: Government aims to cut legal migration

UK deportation plans defy international legal obligations

Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights said the Illegal Migration Bill "breaches a number of the UK’s international human rights obligations and risks breaching others."

Scottish National Party (SNP) lawmaker Joanna Cherry, who chairs the committee, said the law would leave most refugees and victims of modern slavery with no way of seeking asylum in Britain.

"By treating victims of modern slavery as 'illegal migrants' subject to detention and removal, this bill would breach our legal obligations to such victims and would risk increasing trafficking of vulnerable people," she said.

The committee urged the government to make sweeping amendments to the bill, including exempting trafficking victims and curbing the government's power to detain people indefinitely. The government, which had pledged to "stop the boats," is unlikely to heed the recommendations.

Also read: The Paradoxes of the UK's post-Brexit migration policies

Law to act as 'deterrent'

Britain’s Conservative government says the law will deter tens of thousands of people from making perilous journeys across the Channel and break the business model of the criminal gangs behind the trips. Critics, including the United Nations' refugee agency, have described the legislation as unethical and unworkable.

The parliamentary committee questioned whether the law would act as a deterrent and said it "could lead to people taking other, potentially more dangerous, routes into the UK."

The bill has been approved by the House of Commons, where the governing Conservatives have a majority, but is facing opposition in Parliament's upper chamber, the House of Lords. The Lords can amend the legislation but not block it.

The government has housed many of those awaiting asylum decisions in hotels, which officials say costs taxpayers millions of pounds a day. Authorities have said they plan to place new arrivals in disused military camps and a barge docked on the southern English coast.

Also read: UK's Sunak to push for European cooperation on border security

With AP