More than a thousand migrants have crossed the English Channel in small boats in the last 72 hours

2023-06-18 17:44:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

More than a thousand migrants have crossed the English Channel in small boats in

More than 1,000 people have crossed the English Channel in small boats since Friday.

GB News can confirm the huge number, bringing the total number of migrants arriving illegally to 10,349 since the start of this year.

The latest figures belie Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's claims that policies aimed at stemming the small boat crisis were "starting to work" with a 20 per cent reduction in crossing numbers compared to the same period in 2022.

More than £5.5 million a day is currently spent on providing hotel accommodation for asylum seekers.

Official figures from the Home Office reveal that on Friday, a further 486 people were picked up by 10 small boats in the Channel.

On Saturday, a further 374 were picked up on seven barges and taken to Dover's port centre.

GB News can also confirm that by Sunday, 210 Channel migrants had been picked up by four small boats from the UK Border Force.

Another dinghy has been spotted in French waters and is currently heading for the UK.

Maritime experts in Kent have told GB News that the drop in migrant arrivals in the Channel had more to do with poor weather conditions over recent months than any policy change.

Sustained north-easterly winds have pushed against the prevailing tide, whipping up waves and making it more difficult to leave the French beaches.

Conditions in the Channel remain unpredictable, but on most days, a few boats are managing to make the journey to UK waters.

Just two weeks ago Sunak boasted that his mission to "stop the ships" - one of his five promises after coming to power in October last year - was on track.

He said: "In the five months since I launched the scheme, crossings are now down 20 per cent compared to last year."

"The plan is working," he added, claiming his government was not complacent and would pass new laws to crack down on illegal immigration.

Sunak also insisted that a deal with Albania meant Britain was sending more migrants back to the country. He said that so far this year "the number of Albanian small boat arrivals has fallen by almost 90%" and that Britain was now accepting one in 50 Albanian asylum cases compared to one in five previously.

He also urged parliament to pass his new illegal migration bill, which would allow the detention and rapid deportation of people arriving in small boats to their homelands or to so-called safe third countries such as Rwanda .

More than 45,000 migrants crossed the Channel to the UK in small boats last year, according to government figures.

It comes as the number of people arriving in Britain hit an all-time high. The UK saw a net migration of 606,000 people in 2022, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has said, with 1.2 million people arriving in the country but only around half that number leaving.