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LONDON — Some 1,194 migrants arrived in the UK after crossing the Channel in small boats on Saturday, a record for this year according to AFP counting from government data.
It brings the overall number of migrant crossings this year to 14,808, an unprecedented figure despite several measures in place by the French and UK governments to curb the crossings.
French coastal authorities said they also rescued nearly 200 migrants between late Friday and late Saturday.
The latest crossings, which UK Defence Secretary John Healey described as "shocking", fall short of the all-time record of 1,300 migrants arriving on small boats in a day in September 2022.
But they will still prove a headache for UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who has been at pains to toughen his rhetoric on irregular immigration amid pressure from the far right to slash migrant numbers.
After a drop in 2023 from record levels in 2022 under a Conservative government, irregular crossings rebounded sharply last year, with 36,800 arrivals.
This year, the number of people making perilous journeys crossed 10,000 in April, the earliest the milestone has been reached since records began in 2018, when the route into the UK first became popular.
Starmer unveiled tough new immigration policies this month that include doubling the length of time before migrants can qualify for settlement in the country and new powers to deport foreign criminals.
The raft of measures was widely seen as an attempt to win back support from voters and fend off threats from the increasingly popular hard-right Reform party.
France has also agreed to allow its police patrols to intercept migrants in shallow waters, but they cannot stop a boat once it is on its way.
"We've got the agreement [with the French] that they will change the way they work," Healey told Sky News on Sunday.
"Our concentration now is to push them to get that into operation."
Healey told the BBC: "What we now need is to work more closely with the French to persuade them to put that into operation so they can intervene in the water, in the shallow waters, which they don't at the moment."
According to an AFP tally of official figures, 15 people have died so far this year trying to cross the Channel, one of the busiest areas in the world for shipping.