Small boat crossings to be second highest year on record despite Sunak pledge
Small boat crossings are set to be the second highest on record this year, after 93 more people made the perilous journey in freezing cold waters on Friday.
Last year was the highest on record, with some 45,755 people making the crossing. But despite Rishi Sunak ’s promise to ‘stop the boats’ , this year’s figure is just 73 away from the second highest ever - 2021’s total of 28,526. All four Border Force catamarans were in the English Channel on Friday, collecting migrants and escorting them to safety.
Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “Rishi Sunak claimed he would stop the small boats this year but instead this weekend’s figures are set to make it the second highest year of crossings on record, the Tory asylum chaos is continuing and he has broken another promise he made to the British people.
"This Tory asylum chaos has gone on long enough. It's time they stopped wasting time and taxpayers money on the failing Rwanda scheme and a instead adopted Labour ’s plan to stop the criminal smuggler gangs with a new elite cross-border police force unit to work with Europol in a new security and intelligence sharing arrangement.”
Some 1,661 people made the journey last month in 33 boats, including 224 recorded in four boats on Thursday, according to Home Office figures.
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Rishi Sunak promised "no tricks" and "no ambiguity" on January 4 as he set out his five pledges for the year ahead, but refused to give any timescale for each promise apart from inflation. In his first major speech of 2023, he vowed to deliver "peace of mind" to the public even as his Government grappled with an NHS under severe pressure and the ongoing disruption of strike action.
The Prime Minister pledged to halve inflation this year, grow the economy, make sure national debt is falling, cut NHS waiting lists and pass new laws to stop small boat crossings. The Illegal Migration Bill became an Act of Parliament in July after being given royal assent, meaning the Government's sweeping asylum reforms have become law. At the time the Home Office said elements of the new law may be implemented in stages as officials worked on when the Act would come into force.
The much-criticised flagship legislation, central to Mr Sunak's pledge to curbing Channel crossings, will prevent people from claiming asylum in the UK if they arrive through unauthorised means. The number of migrants who have arrived in the UK after making the journey is 36% down on this time last year (44,030), PA news agency analysis shows. But the figure is nearing the total recorded for 2021 (28,526).
More than 68,000 arrivals have been recorded since the Government signed a deal to send migrants to Rwanda in April 2022. More than 35,000 migrants have crossed the Channel to the UK since the start of Mr Sunak's premiership in October last year.
Home Office staff now face a race to meet Mr Sunak's target to clear the backlog of so-called "legacy" asylum cases - applications made before June 28 2022 - by the end of the year. Data published last month showed the backlog of asylum applications - rather than individuals - stood at 122,585 as of October 29 this year, down 12% from a record 138,782 at the end of February.
The legacy backlog of asylum applications stood at 33,253 as of October 29, down nearly a half (47%) from 62,157 on July 30.
To meet the target, around 16,630 applications would have needed to be cleared per month before December 31. Some 12,620 were cleared between September 24 and October 29, and 9,604 cleared between August 27 and September 24, figures showed.
When asked earlier this week if ministers were making a "realistic estimate" that the target to clear the legacy backlog would be met by the end of December, Home Office permanent secretary Sir Matthew Rycroft told MPs: "We have always been confident of that."
Speaking to the Commons Home Affairs Committee, he said extra resources had been brought in and there was an "increase of productivity" to tackle the backlog.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “We are in the midst of a global migration crisis, and that challenge is growing. It is affecting countries across Europe whose numbers continue to grow, but ours are falling. Our priority is to stop the boats – and due to the work of the Small Boats Operational Command, alongside our French partners, small boat crossings are down by a third from the same point last year.
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“The two tragic deaths in the Channel last month serve as another stark reminder of why we must disrupt the gangs driving this evil trade. Our thoughts are with the victims’ family and friends at this time. We will do whatever it takes to end these perilous and fatal journeys, encouraging people to seek safe and legal passage. Since 2015, over 550,000 people have done so.”
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