Channel crossings by migrants near 10,000 as warm spell begins
Some 9,885 people had been logged as making the journey from France as of Sunday, according to provisional Home Office figures for 2025.
The number of migrants who have arrived in the UK after crossing the Channel this year has edged closer to 10,000, at the start of what is forecast to be the warmest week of 2025 so far.
Pictures on Monday showed people wearing life jackets disembarking from a Border Force boat in Dover, Kent, amid sunny weather.
Some 9,885 people had been logged as making the journey from France as of Sunday, according to provisional Home Office figures.
One boat was seen arriving in Dover carrying around 50 migrants, while another Border Force vessel later headed into the Channel.
Confirmation of whether a cumulative total of 10,000 arrivals has been passed will come on Tuesday when the Home Office publishes details for Monday’s crossings.
It would be the earliest point in a calendar year that this milestone has been reached.
Last year the figure of 10,000 was not hit until May 24, while in 2023 it was June 17.
Data on Channel crossings was first collected in 2018.
The number of migrants arriving in the UK after crossing the Channel has already reached a new record for the first four months of a calendar year.
The current cumulative total for 2025, 9,885, is up 38% on the number recorded at this point last year (7,167) and 72% higher than the same point in 2023 (5,745), according to PA news agency analysis of the data.
The Conservative Party claimed on Monday that the figure of 10,000 arrivals had been reached.
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said: “Britain’s borders are being torn apart under Labour.
“This year is already the worst on record for small boat crossings after over 10,000 illegal immigrants arrived in Britain, but Labour just sit on their hands.”
Steve Valdez-Symonds, of Amnesty International, pressed for the creation of safe routes for asylum seekers as he said the figures continued to demonstrate the “uselessness of harsh rhetoric and punitive policies” that did not address why people made the dangerous crossings.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “We all want to end dangerous small boat crossings, which threaten lives and undermine our border security.
“That’s why this Government is investing in border security, increasing returns to their highest levels for more than half-a-decade, and imposing a major crackdown on illegal working to end the false promise of jobs used by gangs to sell spaces on boats.”
