More than 600 small boat migrants reached Britain yesterday, the highest number ever seen so early in the year.
The Home Office confirmed 605 migrants were brought ashore at Ramsgate port in Kent after being picked up mid-Channel by the UK Border Force.
Such a large number of arrivals has not been seen in February or March in previous years of the crisis, which began in 2018.
In 2022 – which went on to witness a record annual number of arrivals – the milestone of 600 arrivals in one day was not passed until April 13.
The following year it was not passed until July, in 2024 the 600 threshold was not breached until May.
And last year did not see more than 600 migrants reaching Britain in one day until April 12, when 656 came.
It means this year has seen a record level reached at least six weeks earlier than in previous years.
It brought the total to have arrived so far this year to 2,209, seven per cent higher than the 2,056 who had reached the UK by the same point last year.
Migrants disembark from a Border Force vessel in Ramsgate port on Wednesday this week
Confirmed arrivals since Labour took power in July 2024 now stand at 66,923.
More have arrived under Sir Keir Starmer’s tenure at Number 10 than under any previous Tory Prime Minister, beating the 65,811 who came during Boris Johnson’s three years.
Migrants arriving at Ramsgate port on Wednesday this week were among a record-breaking 605 to reach Britain in just one day
One of Sir Keir’s first acts in office was to scrap the previous government’s Rwanda asylum deal, which was designed to deter crossings and save lives by removing Channel migrants to east Africa.
Giving evidence to MPs earlier this month Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood admitted Labour’s flagship small boats scheme – the ‘one in, one out’ deal with France – has ‘obviously not dented the numbers yet’.
She said 367 migrants have been brought into the UK under the reciprocal terms of the treaty and only 305 have been removed.
Amid widespread concern over tens of thousands of migrants being housed in hotels at the taxpayers’ expense, Ms Mahmood also disclosed it was ‘quite common’ for migrants who have just arrived across the Channel to ‘ask which hotel they’re going to be in’.
She also declined to give a commitment that Labour’s asylum reforms will start to see a fall in the number of small boat arrivals by next year.
People smugglers have taken advantage of calmer and warmer conditions in the Channel this week after a long period of heavy weather.
