More than 1,000 boat migrants reportedly landed in the UK last week, data released by the government has revealed.
Figures published by the UK Home Office have revealed that more than 1,000 boat migrants landed in Britain last week.
The figure is said to be a record for 2023, with nearly 5,000 migrants said to have arrived in the UK via crossing the English Channel in small boats this year.
According to the Home Office report, 180 migrants split across 4 small boats made their way to Dover on Sunday, reportedly bringing the overall total for last week to 1,057.
Ultimately, around 4,850 migrants are said to have landed in the UK this year, a number that almost outstrips the 5,000 new accommodation spaces on barges, military bases and other locations recently obtained by the government for the sole purpose of housing asylum seekers.
“The unacceptable number of people risking their lives by making these dangerous crossings is placing an unprecedented strain on our asylum system,” a Home Office spokesman said regarding the dire situation, adding that it is a priority of the government to end the crossings.
Despite such reassurances from the state spokesman that the government does want to end the crisis, many have placed the blame for the crisis squarely at the feet of the British state, arguing they have not done a good enough job in deterring migrants from coming.
Even arrivals believed to be enemies of the state are met with a soft-touch approach, with 19 terror suspects under “active investigation” in foreign countries claiming asylum in the UK after arriving via small boat.
“We already have enough problems with home-grown terrorist threats, without having to import others to join them,” Dr Alan Mendoza of the Henry Jackson Society, a counter-terrorism think tank, said.
Such a sentiment was backed up by Brexiteer Nigel Farage, who described the migrant crisis as “a clear threat to national security” that has left Britain at “breaking point”.
Meanwhile, the government has failed to deport the vast majority of illegal arrivals who came to the country via small boats, with only 215 out of last year’s 45,755 migrant arrivals ending up being kicked out of the country, in other words about half of a per cent.
All attempts to get a plan to send migrants to Rwanda for them to claim asylum there instead have also failed so far, leaving little in the way of deterrence for would-be migrants looking to come to Britain.
Things are now so bad that even the pro-immigration Labour Party have started taking pot-shots at the Tories over their poor attempts to tighten the border.
“The Conservatives promised that their plans would deter Channel crossings, yet there have been 1,000 in the last seven days alone,” left-wing shadow immigration minister Stephen Kinnock remarked.
“Nothing they do is working and their incompetence is costing the taxpayer £6 million a day in emergency hotels,” he continued. “Their new legislation will only increase their enormous record-high asylum backlog. Meanwhile, the Conservatives returned just 0.5 per cent of Channel crossers last year.”
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