Number of migrants crossing the English Channel is four times higher than in 2019

The number of migrants crossing the English Channel recorded so far this year is four times higher than in 2019. The UK authorities continue to take action to stop small boats from reaching British shores.
About 615 small boats carrying at least 8,090 irregular migrants and asylum seekers have reached the UK this year. Only last week, four small boats carrying 54 migrants crossed the Channel, the Home Office reported.
At least 10 people have lost their lives since 2019, including a Kurdish-Iranian family whose boat sank off the coast of France in October. Migrants should “claim asylum in the first safe country they reach and not risk their lives by leaving France in a small boat,” said Dan O’Mahoney, a UK official.

TMP _ 27/11/2020

Photo credit: Susan Pilcher
Photo caption: Folkestone, Kent, United Kingdom – February 24th 2019: UK Border Force coastal patrol vessel, Alert returning to Folkestone Harbour after being involved in operations to bring migrants ashore