Busiest day recorded for migrant Channel crossings in 2025 so far
Men and women wearing blankets and life jackets were brought ashore on Monday from a Border Force boat in Dover, Kent.
Nearly 400 migrants have arrived in the UK so far this year after the busiest day for Channel crossings since the start of 2025.
Home Office figures show 260 people made the journey in five boats on Monday – the third day of crossings in January.
Pictures showed men and women wearing blankets and life jackets being brought ashore from a Border Force boat in Dover, Kent, amid good weather conditions at sea.
The latest arrivals take the provisional total for the year to date to 388.
It comes just days after the Government confirmed the first death of the year of a migrant trying to reach the UK from the French coast.
The French coastguard said 35 people were rescued in the Channel overnight on Friday. According to media reports, a Syrian man was crushed by other people on a leaky dinghy.
Last year no crossings took place until January 13 when 124 people made the journey.
Separate figures published on Tuesday by the EU border agency Frontex show there were 67,552 detections of attempted Channel crossings to the UK last year, up 9% on 2023.
This number includes migrants who did not reach the English coast, having been intercepted soon after departure or turned back mid-journey by French authorities.
The most common nationalities of migrants attempting to reach the UK across the Channel were Afghan, Syrian and Vietnamese, according to the data.
Frontex also reported that irregular border crossings into the EU fell 38% in 2024 compared with 2023.
This was driven by a 59% year-on-year drop in arrivals across the central Mediterranean, due to fewer departures from Tunisia and Libya, plus a 78% decline on the western Balkans route thanks to a crackdown by local countries.
Migrants entering the EU via the eastern Mediterranean rose 14%, predominantly from Syria, Afghanistan and Egypt, Frontex said.
