More than 200,000 migrants have arrived in the UK after crossing the English Channel since 2018, official figures show. Just over a third of this number have arrived since Labour took power in July 2024, according to analysis of Government data. The remaining two thirds made the journey under the Conservative governments of the previous four prime ministers.
Since current data began, some 200,013 migrants have travelled across the channel, with 72,094 arriving since Labour formed a government under Sir Keir Starmer. That data is based on official statistics from 2018 to 2025 and provisional figures recorded so far this year. Channel crossings in 2026 so far have been lower than the previous two years. There have been 7,380 arrivals this year, down 36 per cent on the same point last year and 16 per cent down on the equivalent time in 2024.
Government Responses and Policy Shifts
Successive governments have tried to work with France to disrupt crossings and have revised asylum rules to deter migrants. Two thirds of the total arrivals since 2018 came under the four Conservative prime ministers who preceded Sir Keir Starmer. In April, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood signed a three-year agreement with French authorities to pay £662 million to support beach patrols. Ms Mahmood is seeking to overhaul the asylum system to deter crossings and deport people easier, including proposed changes to make refugee status temporary.
Under the current Labour government, ministers scrapped the Conservatives' multimillion-pound deal to send migrants who crossed the Channel from France to Rwanda. Just four volunteers were sent before the policy was ditched. However, the move has prompted a legal battle with the east African nation seeking to sue Britain for more than £100 million, claiming it has breached the terms of the agreement and is owed money — something lawyers for the UK deny.
Yearly Trends and Boat Sizes
Just 299 Channel migrants arrived in Britain in 2018. In December that year, then-home secretary Sajid Javid cut short a holiday to return to the UK and declared a 'major incident' after 45 migrants crossed the Channel on Christmas Day. The annual total increased to 1,843 in 2019, 8,466 in 2020, 28,526 in 2021 and 45,774 in 2022, which is the highest number in a calendar year to date. Arrivals fell to 29,437 in 2023, before rising to 36,816 in 2024 and 41,472 in 2025.
While the volume of migrants reaching the UK across the Channel has varied from year to year, there has been a steady increase since 2018 in the number of people making the journey per boat. There were an average of seven migrants per boat in 2018, rising to 11 in 2019, 13 in 2020, 28 in 2021, 41 in 2022, 49 in 2023, 53 in 2024 and 62 in 2025. The average so far in 2026 is 64.
Fatalities and Belgian Developments
There is no official record of fatalities in the Channel but 2024 is likely to have been the deadliest year, with 50 deaths recorded by the French coastguard. At least 17 people died while attempting the journey in 2025, according to reports by French and UK authorities. The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has also reported more migrant deaths believed to be linked to crossing attempts. The first migrant known to have drowned while attempting the crossing was a 31-year-old Iranian woman, Mitra Mehrad, in August 2019.
It comes as a Belgian police chief said small boats leaving his country should be stopped with a 'naval barrier' to stop them sailing before they can reach the UK. Christiaan De Ridder, Deputy Chief of West Flanders Police, said boats could and must be stopped before reaching French waters. There has been a sudden increase in small boats leaving from Belgian resorts just over the border from France in West Flanders. Once in French waters, the French typically focus on escorting the boats safely into British waters rather than intercepting them, even though they know they are illegal crossings often organised by criminal gangs. The policy has caused increasing fury in the UK as the French are paid tens of millions of pounds by the UK to stop the boats while migrant numbers continue to spiral.
'We have to stop them before they get to the UK. We have to find a way to stop them on the water. If we could put up a naval barrier so they don't get into French waters, everything would stop,' Mr De Ridder told the BBC. Last week, the Mail on Sunday exclusively revealed that ruthless people smugglers had switched to Belgium to launch 'taxi boats' from West Flanders to avoid the threatened increased French police patrols. Passengers include UK-bound migrants who embark in Belgium with others picked up across the border on remote stretches of the Hauts-de-France coast around Dunkirk and Calais.
