More than 1,000 migrants cross English Channel in a week with yearly total hitting 4,850 despite planned deportation laws and bid to slash the £6m-a-day hotel bill on housing asylum seekers
- The number of migrant crossings is expected to increase as weather changes
Over 1000 migrants crossed the English Channel on small boats last week with the government’s new Immigration Bill currently powerless to slow the numbers.
Last week, 1,056 people made the crossing with 180 crossing in four boats of 45 each on Easter Sunday alone.
The numbers make a mockery of the government’s new shift towards deportation and migrant detention centres based in army bases with the number crossing last week enough to fill the Home Office’s controversial floating barge in Dorset twice.
According to the figures, 4,850 people have made the treacherous crossing this year which is a slight decrease on figures from this point last year, due in part to inclement weather.
The figures will be disconcerting reading for the Government who have been scouting around for new detention centres to ease the estimated £6million daily cost of the migrant crisis on the British public.
Over 1000 migrants crossed the English Channel in small boats last week
Migrants travel in an inflatable boat across the English Channel, bound for Dover on the south coast of England
The Home Office had already announced plans to establish new migrant accommodation on a 506- person- barge in Portland, as well as the surplus military sites of RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire and RAF Wethersfield Essex, and an old prison in East Sussex.
But, according to The Times, Home Office officials are scouring a list of disused crown properties to find further housing for at least 25,000 migrants.
There are currently more than 51,000 asylum seekers in hotels.
Of the 45,755 migrants who crossed the Channel by small boat last year, 215 have been deported.
More than 25,000 of those were found to be refugees, despite Government claims the majority of those crossing by small boat are economic migrants.
The figures, based off Home Office data, also show one in five channel migrants are children.
Last year saw record numbers arrive into Dover – 1,104 boats with an average of 41 people each day.
The shocking number of crossings everyday has put into sharp focus the powerlessness of the government to check who is arriving, after the Mail revealed nineteen suspected terrorists have arrived in Britain via small boats across the Channel.
The foreign nationals linked with groups including Islamic State reached the United Kingdom illegally from northern France last year.
Most have since lodged asylum claims here – and cannot be deported due, in part, to human rights laws.
Of the 45,755 migrants who crossed the Channel by small boat last year, 215 have been deported
Some of the 19 suspects are now under surveillance by the Security Service MI5, the government listening post GCHQ, and counter-terrorism police, it is believed. File photo of a group of people thought to be migrants from October 2022
The 19 men are now believed to be living in hotels paid for by the British taxpayer.
READ MORE: Nineteen suspected terrorists – including five linked to ISIS – are living in taxpayer-funded migrant hotels
Seven were already under ‘active investigation’ in other countries when they arrived here, it is understood.
Some of the 19 suspects are now under surveillance by the Security Service MI5, the government listening post GCHQ, and counter-terrorism police, it is believed.
But the Government is powerless to remove any of the 19, because they face a risk of torture or ill-treatment in their home countries.
In response to last week’s crossing numbers, a Home Office spokesman said: ‘The unacceptable number of people risking their lives by making these dangerous crossings is placing an unprecedented strain on our asylum system.
‘Our priority is to stop this illegal trade, and our Small Boats Operational Command is working alongside our French partners and other agencies to disrupt the people smugglers.’
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