Small boat crossings hit a new record in 2022 and “more lives will be put at risk” if the government does not take effective action, it has been warned.
Almost 46,000 people made the journey across the English Channel in the year, a 60 per cent increase on 2021 – which was a record high at the time.
Home Office figures show that 90 per cent of small boat migrants claim asylum after being intercepted by authorities, but ministers have so far failed to set up more alternative routes.
High winds and rough seas mean there have been no arrivals since Christmas Day, but officials expect more dinghies to launch from northern France when the weather calms.
Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, told The Independent: “All the Conservatives have done this year is ramp up the rhetoric while making the problem worse.
”They’ve failed to tackle criminal gangs that are profiting from crossings, written a £140m cheque to Rwanda for an unworkable, unethical scheme and there’s still no safe way for many lone child refugees to rejoin relatives in the UK. This isn’t working and it means more and more lives are put at risk.”
Ms Cooper said a deal needed to be struck with France to allow asylum seekers in the country to reunite with relatives in the UK and enable returns, adding: “Too many lives are being put at risk in these dangerous boats while criminals profit. We need action before things get worse.“
The government has announced several policies it claimed would “deter” Channel crossings, including the Rwanda deal, Ministry of Defence patrols, new laws to criminalise migrants and social media campaigns.
But arrivals have continued to rise, despite French authorities preventing over 32,500 crossings.
The boats used have been getting larger and more overloaded, seeing the average number of passengers increase from eight in 2018 to 47 this autumn, making journeys more dangerous.
At least four people drowned when their dinghy started sinking while attempting the treacherous journey on 14 December, and four other passengers remain missing.
Official figures show that 299 people were detected arriving on small boats in 2018, when then home secretary Sajid Javid declared a “major incident”, then 1,843 in 2019, 8,466 in 2020 and 28,526 in 2021.
The provisional total for 2022, calculated by the Press Association using Home Office and Ministry of Defence figures, is 45,756.
While a new record, the total is far below an internal Home Office estimate of 65,000, which was made early in 2022.
Claire Moseley, founder of the Care4Calais, said the figures “show that the government’s anti-migrant rhetoric is no substitute for workable solutions”.
Suella Braverman has been criticised for her rhetoric on migration
“With no safe routes for the refugees we work with in Calais to claim asylum in the UK, brutal policies such as Rwanda will not work as a deterrent,” she added.
“We know it’s possible to give people safe passage – we do it for Ukrainian refugees – so why not do it for other refugees? This is the only way that small boat crossings will stop and lives will be saved.”
The past year has seen a rise in Afghans and Albanians arriving in dinghies, while Iranian, Syrian and Iraqi nationals also make up significant numbers.
Announcing a new package of punitive laws in December, the prime minister said the government would only create more safe and legal routes after it “gets a grip of illegal migration”.
Priti Patel and Rwandan minister for foreign affairs and international co-operation Vincent Biruta signed a migration and economic development partnership in Kigali in April but no flights have taken place
