More than 10,000 migrants have exceeded the channel this year, Sky News understands.
Today, several small boats were picked up by Border Force ships, with their passengers being brought to Dover.
The number will be a blow for the government of Sir Keir Stargers, who has promised to deal with the number of people who cross the channel, especially by “smashing” criminal smuggling gangs.
In the first four months of 2025, more people have been crossed than in the same time of all previous years that began in 2018.
Last year the 10,000 number was only hit on May 24th, while in 2023 this happened on June 17th. But spring this year brought unusually warm and sunny weather.
“A pretty lame apology”
Chris Philp, the Interior Minister of Shadow, blamed the government's rise and scrapped the Rwanda program, which wanted to keep people from crossing that they were flown to the African nation and instead processed there.
He said: “We know that deterrent work. It is obvious that someone who illegally crosses the channel from France ends somewhere else, how Rwanda, which will not bother to try the intersection at all.”
The weather would be a “pretty lame apology,” he added.
Nigel Farage, the Chairman of Reform UK, added that he believes that numbers reach 250,000 people by the end of this parliament, and that he believes that the United Kingdom should leave the European Convention on Human Rights so that migrants can be deported as soon as they arrive.
In response to the numbers, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry insisted that the government “does not stop anything” in order to defeat the responsible smuggling gangs.
They added that the distribution of the secret services by the border security command, the improvement of the enforcement in northern France and harder rules that are determined in border security, and asylum laws increase the “ability to identify disorders and to reduce criminal gangs while strengthened the security of our borders”.
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