Record 128 migrants make perilous journey to UK in small boat
A new record was set for the number of people crossing the English Channel in a single small boat on Friday, when 128 people made the perilous journey.
This ship was one of three ships that brought a total of 225 people across the Channel that day, according to Ministry of Internal Affairs data.
The previous record for a single boat was set in September 2025 with 125 people.
The figure, first reported by the BBC, prompted a Home Office spokesman to say smuggling gangs were “taking more risks than ever as the number of people they cram into unseaworthy boats increases every year”.
Despite this new peak for individual ships, broader data shows a decline in the total number of migrants attempting to cross the Channel.
Home Office figures reveal 11,884 migrants arrived in the six months from early January to the end of June.
This is 41 per cent lower than the total number arriving in the UK at this point last year, which was 19,982.
There was also a 12 percent decrease compared to the 13,489 that arrived in the first six months of 2024.
This sharp decline is likely to reflect a number of factors including weather, the supply of small craft parts, Government policy and the flow of immigrants into Europe from other parts of the world.
In April, Home Affairs Minister Shabana Mahmood signed a three-year deal with French authorities to pay £662 million to support beach patrols as part of efforts to reduce arrivals.
Ms Mahmood is also trying to overhaul the asylum system to discourage crossings and make it easier to deport people, including proposed changes that would make refugee status temporary.
Looking back, this year’s January-June figure of 11,884 is 4 percent higher than the equivalent figure in 2023 (11,433) and 7 percent lower than the 2022 figure (12,747).
While the number of arrivals has fallen so far this year, the number of migrants arriving per boat has reached a new record, reaching an average of 65 per boat from January to June.
While there were an average of 62 migrants per boat in all of last year, this figure was 58 in January-June 2025.
