Nearly 1,500 migrants have arrived on small boats this week, new figures have revealed, as the Government’s struggle to get a grip on the Channel crisis continues.
Data published by the Home Office on Saturday shows 116 people crossed the Channel via two small boats yesterday.
It takes the total number of arrivals since Monday to 1,442, an increase on the 1,119 arrivals for the week ending 10 August, even before any further potential crossings over the weekend.
The latest data comes after the total number of migrants to have arrived since Labour came to power hit 50,000 this week despite the Prime Minister’s key election pledge to “smash” the people-smuggling gangs.
Some Labour MPs have told The i Paper the Government needs to do more to combat the issue amid simmering tensions in towns and cities across the UK.
Further protests at hotels used for asylum seekers are due to take place on Saturday, including in Falkirk and Aberdeen in Scotland.
Protesters calling for the closure of the The Bell Hotel, believed to be housing asylum seekers, gathered outside the council offices in Epping last week (Photo: Henry Nicholls/AFP)
The figures for migrant crossings in August suggest the Government’s ‘one in, one out’ deal with France is yet to prove effective.
The arrangement came into effect last week and some MPs believe it could be a game-changer.
But there are fears it is a long way off reaching the scale required for it to work as a deterrent.
One “Red Wall” Labour MP said: “I know the Government is serious about tackling this issue, and wait to see how the new arrangement with France progresses, but if we do not see crossings reducing very quickly, we need to adopt more radical solutions.”
Some MPs believe the government needs to consider responses such as ‘offshoring’ asylum claims to a third country in a similar way to the Rwanda scheme proposed by the previous Tory administration.
Sir Keir Starmer has sought diplomatic solutions with Emmanuel Macron (Photo: Leon Neal / Pool via Reuters)
Others suggest the Royal Navy may need to be deployed in the Channel to take action.
A Home Office spokeswoman said: “Since the election and having inherited a system in chaos, the Government has signed a returns agreement with France, entered new partnerships to tackle illegal migration with the Calais Group, Iraq, Italy, Western Balkan countries, Vietnam, hosted the Organised Immigration Crime Summit and stood up a new sanctions regime for people smugglers.
“We have set up the Border Security Command, boosted the capability of the National Crime Agency and Immigration Enforcement and brought forward legislation with counter terrorism style powers to smash the people smuggling gangs.
“Immigration raids and arrests have increased and 35,000 people with no right to be in the UK, including failed asylum seekers, immigration and foreign national offenders have been deported.
“There is no silver bullet to stopping small boats. But this is not about unworkable gimmicks but taking a step-by-step approach to border security.”