More than 150 thousand small boat migrants have reached the UK since the start of the Channel crisis.

The latest Home Office figures show that 407 migrants were brought into Dover aboard Border Force vessels on 26 December after being intercepted in the Channel, the British Daily Mail wrote.

It took the total to have arrived since Labour came to power to more than 22 thousand. In all, 150,220 small boat migrants have reached the UK since the first dinghies crossed in 2018.

December marked the sixth anniversary of then Conservative home secretary Sajid Javid declaring a „major incident” when, at that point, 281 migrants had reached Britain by small boat.

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp now accused Labour of making a „terrible mistake” by scrapping the previous government’s Rwanda asylum scheme. The Conservative politician insisted the project would have brought the Channel crisis to a halt, and also urged the French government to start turning back dinghies. Mr Philp said:

„It’s clear a new approach is needed. The Rwanda deterrent – where anyone crossing would rapidly be removed to Rwanda – would have stopped this. It was a terrible mistake for Labour to cancel Rwanda before it even started. That’s why crossings are up 20 per cent since Labour came in.”

Mr Philp went on to point out that:

„The Belgians have almost completely stopped crossings from their beaches by intercepting boats at sea near the coast and returning them to shore. This has been done safely. I call on France to use the same tactic to save lives at sea by ending this illegal migration route – which is also causing misery and rampant criminality around Calais and Dunkirk.”

150 thousand arrivals

The first small boat arrivals recorded in official Home Office data took place on 31 January, 2018, with further occasional arrivals that summer and autumn. But when five boats with a total of 45 people aboard arrived on Christmas Day in 2018, followed by 38 migrants over the following three days, it prompted Mr Javid to announce that he had taken personal control of the situation. He also requested an urgent call with his French counterpart to discuss the emerging crisis.

Small boat migrant numbers went on to peak at more than 45,700 in 2022. Just one day in September that year saw a record 1,305 arrivals.

The 407 latest arrivals during foggy conditions on Boxing Day brought the total since the start of this year to 35,898, the second-highest annual figure.

Labour abandoned the Rwanda deal as one of its first acts in power, and said it would prevent crossings by investing in law enforcement measures to „smash the gangs”. The government is setting up a Border Security Command (BSC) which will bring together a range of government agencies including parts of the Border Force, the National Crime Agency and the security services. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s new borders chief last month said he wanted to cut small boat crossings to „zero”.