A record 28,076 migrants have crossed the English Channel to the UK in small boats so far in 2025, a 46% increase compared with the same period last year, government data showed Monday. The milestone was reached Sunday when 212 migrants arrived in four separate boats.
The surge has intensified public debate over immigration, with anti-migrant protests continuing outside hotels housing asylum seekers. Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour government has pledged to phase out hotel use by 2029 and overhaul the asylum system, including speeding up appeals and reducing a backlog of more than 100,000 cases, News.Az reports, citing Reuters.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the reforms aim to restore “control and order” to what she called a system “in complete chaos.”
Meanwhile, opposition politician Nigel Farage, leader of Reform UK, proposed mass deportations of small-boat migrants. His plan includes withdrawing from the European Convention on Human Rights, barring asylum claims, building detention centres for 24,000 people, and arranging daily deportation flights to countries such as Afghanistan and Eritrea.