Dozens of migrants were seen arriving in Dover on Friday morning
More than 200,000 migrants have crossed the Channel (Image: Getty)
More than 200,000 migrants have crossed the English Channel, it is understood.
Dozens of asylum seekers arrived in Dover, Kent, on Friday morning, heaping fresh pressure on Sir Keir Starmer after his ballot box drubbing in the local elections.
Around 70 people were spotted climbing off a Border Force vessel, taking the total number of asylum seekers to arrive by small boat past 200,000 after the crisis began in 2018.
The Daily Express this week revealed the vast majority of Channel migrants are not being removed, with just 0.5% of the biggest cohorts being returned.
And support for Nigel Farage‘s Reform UK has surged as people smugglers continue to exploit Britain’s border chaos.
Tory Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: “The immigration system is totally broken. Small boat arrivals are up 45 per cent since the election.
“Labour are failing to remove illegal immigrants, so it is no wonder they keep flooding in, as they know they will almost certainly get to stay.
“Among them are many who go on to commit serious crimes, including murder, rape, and the sexual assault of young girls. This situation is a disgrace.
“We will ban asylum claims for illegal immigrants, leave the ECHR, and stop the courts intervening to allow illegal immigrants to stay. This will enable small boat illegal immigrants to all be deported within a week of arrival – back to their country of origin if possible or a safe third country if not.
“Then the crossings will soon stop. Labour do not have the backbone to do this, and Reform do not have a credible plan.”
Alp Mehmet, Chairman of Migration Watch UK, said: “200,000 arrivals since 2018, with 190,000 still here – less than 10% removed. Over 73,000 have arrived since Sir Keir Starmer promised to end the chaos and smash the gangs. Instead, it’s got worse.
“We warned the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act would lead to more crossings, not reduce them, and it has.
“The “one in, one out” deal with France has proven a costly failure; as we predicted. There is simply no meaningful deterrent for migrants or the gangs.
“Indeed, even attempts by the Home Secretary are thwarted by Labour backbenchers at every turn and receive little support from the Prime Minister
“Without deterrence, we are on course to add another town the size of Norwich, populated by small-boat arrivals, and this time, it won’t take anything like eight years, costing taxpayers tens of billions more we simply don’t have.”
A staggering 96,002 asylum seekers from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and Eritrea have arrived in small boats between 2018 and 2025.
But only 495 – 0.5% – have been sent back to these countries in seven years.
New figures, obtained for the first time by the Daily Express, also reveal more small boat migrants have been returned to Ireland, 57, than Syria, 55 and Afghanistan, 16.
And the same number have been sent back to Somalia and Tunisia as the United States of America – all 3.
Migrants are helped onto a Border Force vessel (Image: Getty)
Some 7,534 small boat migrants have been removed since 2018, research by the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford – shared with the Daily Express – reveals.
The vast majority of the returns were to Albania.
The overall number of small boat removals has increased marginally, fuelled by rising numbers of returns to France, Germany and Turkey.
Only 16 people have been sent back to Afghanistan, with only two last year. By contrast, 27,422 Afghans have crossed the Channel in small boats since 2018.
Just 108 of the 30,269 Iranians who arrived by dinghy have been deported to Iran and six to Eritrea between 2018 and 2025. Migration Observatory analysis shows 19,154 Eritreans have been detected leaving France.
And 365 of the 19,157 Iraqis have been removed.
Only seven of the 12,633 Sudanese migrants to have crossed the Channel have left.
The Home Office figures – obtained through Freedom of Information requests – also revealed 381 people have been booted out to Turkey between 2018 and 2025.
Another 116 have been sent to Germany, and 51 to Italy.
In total, immigration officials have returned small boat migrants to 67 countries.
The number of migrants making the journey to the UK started at very low levels, with just 299 arrivals recorded in 2018.
In December of that year, then-home secretary Sajid Javid cut short a Christmas break 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, then to 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.