Over 200,000 migrants have crossed English Channel in small boats since 2018
More than 200,000 migrants have crossed the English Channel in small boats since records began in 2018, the Home Office confirmed on Friday after 70 people arrived on one boat. The milestone comes as successive UK governments have failed to stem the flow, with annual crossings more than doubling in the last three years. At least eight migrants have died attempting the crossing this year, according to the UN's International Organization for Migration and French authorities.
More than 200,000 migrants have crossed the English Channel in small boats since records began in 2018, the Home Office confirmed on Friday after 70 people arrived in the UK on a single boat, taking the total to 200,013.
Calm weather conditions allowed the 70 people on one boat to make the crossing. The milestone comes as successive UK governments have failed to stem the flow, with annual crossings more than doubling in the last three years.
At least eight migrants have died while trying to cross the Channel by boat this year, according to the UN's International Organization for Migration and French authorities. Last year 23 people were confirmed to have died.
About 128,000 crossings were made under previous Conservative governments between 2018 and 2024. Since Labour took power in 2024, more than 72,000 people have entered the UK this way. Annual crossings peaked in 2022 when more than 45,000 people made the journey. More than 7,380 people have crossed the Channel since January, which is 36% lower than the same period last year.
A Home Office spokesperson said the government was "bearing down on small boat crossings". "The home secretary has signed a landmark new deal with France to boost enforcement action on beaches and put people smugglers behind bars," they added. "This builds on joint work that has stopped over 42,000 illegal migrants attempting to cross the channel since the election. We have removed or deported almost 60,000 people who were here illegally and are going further to remove the incentives that draw illegal migrants to this country."
The majority of migrants crossing the Channel on small boats from 2018 to 2025 are from Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, Eritrea and Albania, Home Office figures show. In the last year, people arriving from Eritrea, Somalia and Ethiopia nearly trebled to 13,000 compared with 2024.
About 95% of people who arrived on small boats in the eight years to 2025 claimed asylum in the UK. By December last year, more than 108,000 of these asylum applications had been processed, with about three in five people granted asylum. About 7,600 people who arrived by small boat have been returned from the UK since 2018. Figures up to December 2025 suggest 70% of those returned were from Albania.