Just four days into March, over 1,100 people managed to cross from France to the UK across the English Channel. The Home Office meanwhile is seeking new solutions with France, as well as other partners, to reduce irregular boat arrivals.
Late on Thursday, (March 6), the UK and France signed the latest in a series of agreements aimed at bolstering cooperation to tackle people smuggling across the Channel. The so-called 'road map' was signed between the UK's Border Security Commander Martin Hewitt and the French special representative on migration, Patrick Stefanini.
A statement from the UK's Home Office (Interior Ministry), said the agreement was designed to focus on four main issues: "disrupting criminal gangs, deterring illegal migrants from taking the dangerous journey, ensuring the effective and prompt return of irregular migrants to source and transit countries, and tackling the root cause of irregular movement."
On Wednesday, (March 5), according to UK Home Office data, 210 people crossed the Channel in small boats. Official UK figures show that 1,168 people made the journey across the Channel between March 1 and 4, which means that in just over two full months so far this year, a total of 3,224 have managed to reach British shores irregularly.
This is the first time to date in 2025 that over 1,000 people managed to reach Britain in such a short span of time. Last week, a delegation from the Home Office visited France to further ramp up efforts with French authorities to prevent smugglers from taking irregular migrants to Britain.
On March 2, a total of 592 people managed to cross the Channel to southern England, making this the highest number arriving in one day this year so far.
The number of arrivals so far this year is eight percent higher when compared to the same period in both 2023 and in 2024, when in each case just under 3,000 people succeeded in reaching the UK across the Channel.
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Cross-Channel efforts to limit irregular migration
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper traveled to France last week to discuss further measure to curb cross-Channel migration with her French counterpart, Bruno Retailleau.
As a result of the meeting, the UK pledged to redirect over 8.3 million euros to establishing a stronger law enforcement response on migrant channel crossings, which among other things will include the establishment of a new specialist intelligence and judicial police unit in Dunkirk to speed up the arrest of people-smugglers, as well as the training of additional drone pilots to intercept planned boat departures before they take place.
Home Secretary Cooper said since criminal smuggler gangs operate across borders, "law enforcement needs to operate across borders too."
"These criminal networks operate right across Europe and beyond, and we are determined to increase our joint action working with other countries to stop the gangs and boats before they reach the French coast," she added, according to a Home Office press release.
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UK leading debate on immigration control
The meeting between the two ministers came ahead of the UK Border Security Summit, which is scheduled to take place in London on March 31 and April 1, to which France and over 40 other countries have been invited.
Participating countries plan to discuss solutions to organized immigration crime both domestically and across border.
The UK government meanwhile also has plans to introduce a new bill in parliament to further crack down on people smuggling — though the legal draft might face scrutiny in both houses.
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with dpa