Updates on the number of migrants to have crossed the Channel on Wednesday (February 25) gradually crept up as the day went on. The right-leaning Daily Telegraph started by saying 450 had crossed, but later on that day, their headline said it had become 550. On Thursday (February 26) the Home Office confirmed that 605 migrants actually crossed the Channel or were picked up on their way to the British coast.

Right-wing and generally anti-migrant broadcaster GB News said the figure was closer to 600 and their correspondent live on air said that two more boats were arriving in Ramsgate as he was broadcasting and they believe the arrivals would "top 600," a prediction that turned out to be true.

On February 24, 74 people arrived. Prior to those arrivals, 322 people arrived on February 9 and then there were no crossings registered for more than two weeks.

Temperatures in southern England on Wednesday were set to reach 18 degrees Celsius. The arrivals on Wednesday slightly surpassed the total arrivals in February up until that point (597).

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Statistical comparisons and spin

Britain’s right-wing press likes to underline the fact that more migrants have crossed the Channel on small boats under Sir Keir Starmer’s time in office than under any other Prime Minister. In fact more than 65,000 migrants have crossed since the Labour party took office on July 5, 2024. However, that slightly ignores the fact that since David Cameron resigned in 2016, no British Prime Minister served a full term in office, with Liz Truss lasting just 49 days.

In proportion to overall migration in the UK, the numbers crossing the Channel are only about ten percent of the whole, but optically, Channel migrant arrivals have been a problem for successive British governments, and this, coupled with declining poll ratings are dogging Starmer’s government too.

Britain’s latest Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood told MPs last month in Parliament that she could not guarantee that the number of Channel crossings would fall by this time next year, but she is hoping that the measures the government has introduced will start to have an impact soon.

Mahmood said, "I can’t give you a timeline of exactly when that will happen, partly because we do have to pass legislation." That, admitted Mahmood, will "necessarily take time."

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More people on boats

Another problem the current government is grappling with, reported the Telegraph, is that smuggling gangs are now cramming more people on to boats than when some of Starmer’s predecessors were in power.

Former Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson held office between July 24, 2019, and September 6, 2022. Arrivals during this 1,140 day-period totaled 65,811, which works out to an average of 404 arrivals per week, calculated the Telegraph staff.

In comparison, Starmer’s period in office of 584 days so far saw an average of 790 arrivals per week.

Under Johnson, there were on average 26 migrants on a boat, and under Starmer, there are on average around 59 per dinghy, reports The Telegraph. The size of the actual dinghies has not significantly changed, but the operations have become slicker and more numerous, with departures taking place from multiple places on the French coast.

A spokesperson for the British Home Office told the Telegraph that they were doing everything they could to "bear down on small boat crossings." The spokesperson added, "we have stopped 40,000 crossing attempts since this government came into office through our joint work with the French. We have removed or deported almost 60,000 people who were here illegally. Our pilot deal with the French means those who arrive on small boats are now being sent back."

GB News however, quoting an unnamed "senior maritime source," wrote that they had been told that "only a tiny fraction of the total" of migrants stopped by the French authorities were in fact the result of French law enforcement. The broadcaster said instead that the vast majority of those "stopped" were actually because their boats had got into trouble and they had had to be rescued in French waters, either because of engine failure, overcrowding or bad weather.

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Home Office migration statistics for 2025

On Thursday, the BBC published the latest Home Office figures, which showed a slight drop in the number of people claiming asylum in the UK in the year ending December 2025. The BBC said this represented a 4 percent decrease compared with 2024. BBC Verify’s Head of Statistics Robert Cuffe added that this drop was despite there being 13 percent more people arriving by small boat than in 2024.

The BBC also confirmed, citing Home Office data, that the number of asylum seekers being housed in hotels had fallen, a decrease of 19 percent on data from 2024, and the overall backlog of people waiting for a decision on their asylum claim had also fallen for the fourth quarter in a row to 64,426.

More than 2,500 people who arrived on small boats were returned in the year ending December 2025. This represented a 10 percent increase from 2024, reported the BBC. The majority of these returns, 61 percent, were Albanian nationals. The UK and Albania have a bilateral agreement which makes returns to Albania quicker and easier. Turkish and Iraqi nationals were also among the nationalities being returned most quickly. The UK has also signed bilateral agreements with Iraq as part of their multi-pronged strategy to manage migration.

Overall, the number of enforced and voluntary returns increased. Enforced returns were 21 percent higher than in 2024, and voluntary returns rose by five percent. Returns of foreign national offenders also increased by 11 percent.

In 2025, Eritreans were the most common nationality to arrive by small boat, followed by nationals from Afghanistan, Iran, Sudan and Somalia.

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