Nearly 1,200 migrants reached British shores after crossing the English Channel on Saturday, a record for a single day this year. The arrivals have prompted the British government to reiterate calls on French authorities to stop migrants in shallow waters.
1,194 migrants arrived in the UK on Saturday (May 31) in 18 small boats from France across the English Channel. That's according to UK government figures updated Sunday.
Saturday's arrivals mark the greatest number recorded on a single day so far this year, according to the AP news agency. This brings the total tentative figure published by the British Home Office for this year to 14,811 arrivals, which is 42 percent more and 95 percent more compared to the same period last year and in 2023, respectively.
This year's record is only slightly lower than the highest daily total of 1,305 arrivals, recorded on September 3, 2022. Data collection on small boat arrivals began in 2018.
According to the German press agency dpa, French police officers were seen on Saturday watching as migrants, including children, boarded small boats at a beach between Calais and Dunkirk. What's more, authorities were then reportedly pictured escorting the boats.
The French authorities often report escorting the boats at a safe distance, so that they can intervene if the boats get into trouble and try and prevent loss of life, however, once people are on the boats and are out at sea, they say intervening could cause accidents or loss of life.
British Defense Secretary John Healey called the scenes of migrants being picked up by smugglers to the UK "shocking", news agency dpa reported. It is a "really big problem" that French police are unable to intervene to intercept boats in shallow waters, he told Sky News.
On Saturday, French authorities said they rescued 184 people -- a small fraction of those who successfully made it across to England.
Healey further told Sky News that the UK is pressing the French to put new rules into operation so they can intervene. "We've got the agreement that they will change the way they work, and our concentration now is to push them to get that into operation so they can intercept these smugglers and stop these people in the boats, not just on the shore," he said.
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Opposing views
On the other side of the Channel, meanwhile, a leading member of the French Parliament has blamed Britain's decision to leave the European Union for the large number of migrants crossing the Channel in small boats
The MP, Éléonore Caroit, who belongs to President Macron's Renaissance party, claimed that the UK's asylum policy has been "very weak" partly because Britain no longer had a returns agreement with the EU as a result of Brexit taking effect over five years ago, the British Telegraph reported.
She did, however, admit that a pending law change would allow French police to intercept migrants in shallow water, which is currently "impossible," Caroit said.
The French government so far reportedly hasn't made good on its 2022 pledge to change national laws so police can stop the boats in shallow waters, according to the Telegraph.
On Monday (June 1), British Conservative opposition politician Chris Philp, who used to work in the Home Office when the Conservative party were in government, reportedly urged the British Labour government, which has been in power for nearly a year, to suspend its 12-year fishing deal with France until they intercept migrants at sea and stop the Channel crossings.
French MP Caroit called it "unfair" to say France had no political will to stop the boats. At the same time, she called for "increased cooperation" between the UK and France as well as between authorities and policemen "so that we can actually have a clear division of what can be done when the boats are in the water," she said according to the Telegraph.
Since Britain left the European Union in 2020, it is no longer a signatory of the bloc's Dublin Regulation, which stipulates that the first EU nation entered by a particular migrant should be in charge of that person's asylum procedure -- even if they move to another EU country and lodge a second claim there.
In mid-April, InfoMigrants reported that Britain and France were in early talks over a migrant exchange program that would enable Britain to deport one person to France in exchange for the French sending another person to the UK, focusing on family reunifications.
The deal would potentially enable British authorities to avoid putting a timestamp on the returns procedures.
Reacting to critical questions about Channel crossings by a journalist, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Sunday (June 1) said that "nobody should be making that journey" and that the UK is working closely with France and other nations to "take further action" to prevent illegal crossings.
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Domestic pressure
Saturday's arrivals have both contributed to putting 2025 on track to set a record for Channel crossings and added pressure on the British government.
Over the last couple of months, Prime Minister Keir Starmer's rhetoric regarding migration appears to have become sharper. Since suffering blows at the local elections at the beginning of May, and still less than a year into office, he is under pressure politically to demonstrate that he is able to deal with migration.
Having scrapped the previous, conservative government's plan to send migrants who arrived in the UK by unauthorized means to Rwanda, Starmer said his government would get control by smashing the gangs and the business models that sustain their smuggling operations.
But Starmer's government is now seeking to set up agreements that are not hugely dissimilar. Last month, Starmer announced that the UK was looking to draw up agreements with several third countries that could host return hubs for asylum seekers refused the right to stay in Britain.
Starmer's government has moreover sought better intelligence-sharing internationally, enhanced enforcement operations in northern France and has adopted tougher immigration rules since gaining power, AP reported.
Yet despite efforts on both sides of the Channel, the migration route across the narrow waterway, one of the world's busiest shipping lanes, remains a major smuggling corridor. According to AP, many migrants favor the UK for reasons of language, family ties or perceived easier access to asylum and work.
Meanwhile, Nigel Farage's anti-immigration and pro-Brexit Reform UK party is reportedly topping national opinion polls. It has also claimed that Starmer has lost control of irregular migration across the Channel.
Defense Secretary John Healey's remarks from Sunday that Britain has "lost control" of its borders over the last five years could play into Farage's hands.
36,816 people arrived in the UK on small boats in 2024, according to the Home Office, 25 percent more than in 2023 (29,437). The highest number of arrivals was in 2022, with 45,774.
with AP, dpa