Number of boat migrants arriving in UK after crossing the Channel since 2018 hits 200,000, official figures confirm

Figures show more than 200,000 migrants have crossed the Channel to reach the UK since 2018.

Just over a third of that number have arrived since Labor came to power in July 2024, according to an analysis of government data.

The remaining two-thirds traveled under the Conservative governments of the previous four prime ministers.

Approximately 200,013 migrants have passed through the canal since available data began; 72,094 migrants have arrived since Labor formed a government under Sir Keir Starmer.

This data is based on official statistics from 2018 to 2025 and provisional figures recorded so far this year.

Channel crossings in 2026 have so far been lower than in the previous two years.

This year, there were 7,380 arrivals, down 36 percent from the same point last year and 16 percent from the same time in 2024.

Successive governments have tried to work with France to block crossings and revised asylum rules to deter migrants.

Just over a third of that number has arrived since Labor came into government in 2024. Picture: Migrants walk towards a small boat along the Canal

More than 200,000 migrants are known to have crossed the English Channel into the UK since 2018. Image: Migrants boarding a small boat at Gravelines in northern France

In April Home Affairs Minister Shabana Mahmood signed a three-year deal with French authorities to pay £662 million to support beach patrols.

Ms Mahmood is trying to overhaul the asylum system to deter crossings and make it easier to deport people, including proposed changes to make refugee status temporary.

Under the current Labor government, ministers canceled the Conservatives’ multimillion-pound deal to send migrants across the Channel from France to Rwanda.

Only four volunteers were sent before the policy was rescinded.

But the move sparked a legal battle with the East African country, which is trying to sue Britain for more than £100 million for allegedly breaching the terms of the agreement and owing it money; UK lawyers deny this.

Images taken on a small boat in the early hours of this morning show migrants wearing designer clothes heading towards Britain.

Those on board brazenly filmed themselves and posted the footage on social media, urging others to make the same journey.

All images had a date of Saturday and the following text: ‘Praise be to God, take care of him and his master chooses.’

The migrants on the ship were all male and some were wearing specially designed clothing, including life jackets.

Footage taken in the early hours of Saturday morning showed migrants heading towards Britain across the Channel in a small boat.

The video was titled: ‘Praise be to Allah, take care of him and his master chooses.’

Everyone on the boat appears to be male and many of them are wearing designer clothes.

Records of migrants crossing the Channel as part of the crisis began in 2018, with just 299 Channel migrants reaching Britain.

In December that year, then home secretary Sajid Javid cut short his holiday to return to the UK and declared a ‘major incident’ after 45 migrants crossed the Channel on Christmas Day.

The annual total rose to 1,843 in 2019, 8,466 in 2020, 28,526 in 2021 and 45,774 in 2022, the highest number ever.

Arrivals dropped to 29,437 in 2023, then rose to 36,816 in 2024 and 41,472 in 2025.

Although the volume of migrants reaching the UK via the Channel varies from year to year, there has been a steady increase in the number of people traveling per boat since 2018.

While there were an average of seven migrants per boat in 2018, this number increased to 11 in 2019, 13 in 2020, 28 in 2021, 41 in 2022, 49 in 2023, 53 in 2024 and 62 in 2025.

The average so far in 2026 is 64.

There is no official record of deaths in the canal, but 2024 is likely to be the deadliest year, with 50 deaths recorded by the French coastguard.

According to reports from French and British authorities, at least 17 people have died trying to make this journey in 2025.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) also reported more migrant deaths believed to be linked to crossing attempts.

The first migrant known to have drowned while trying to cross the border was 31-year-old Iranian Mitra Mehrad in August 2019.

It comes as a Belgian police chief said small boats leaving his country should be stopped by a ‘sea barrier’ to prevent them sailing before reaching the UK.

Christiaan De Ridder said the boats could and should be stopped before they reached French waters.

There has been a sudden increase in small boats departing from Belgian resorts just over the French border in West Flanders.

Once in French waters, the French generally focus on escorting boats safely to British waters rather than intercepting them, despite knowing these are illegal crossings often organized by criminal gangs.

The policy has caused growing anger in the UK, as the French have been paid tens of millions of pounds by the UK to stop boats as migrant numbers continue to rise.

‘We must stop them before they reach England. We have to find a way to stop them in the water. Mr De Ridder, Deputy Chief of West Flanders Police, told the BBC: “If we could put up a sea barrier to prevent them from entering French waters, everything would stop.”

Last week the Mail on Sunday exclusively revealed that ruthless people smugglers were crossing into Belgium from West Flanders to send ‘taxi boats’ to avoid increased French police patrols.

Among the passengers are migrants heading to Belgium on their way to the UK, while other migrants are picked up at the border from remote areas of the Hauts-de-France coast around Dunkirk and Calais.