THE UK recorded the lowest number of small boats carrying migrants crossing the Channel this summer since 2019, the government said Monday, touting the success of its enforcement deal with France.
The combined number of boats making the journey from France to the UK this year in June, July and August — summer months that usually see a surge in crossings due to the mild weather — dropped to a seven-year low, the interior ministry said.
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The number of migrants crossing on boats during the summer months — 7,371 per an AFP tally of official figures — was the lowest since 2020, the Home Office added.
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According to the PA news agency, around 102 small boats crossed the Channel between June and August, the lowest since 2019, when 57 vessels made the journey.
"We will be relentless in targeting the criminal gangs behind these crossings, and we will continue to remove the incentives that draw people here on unsafe and illegal routes," home secretary Shabana Mahmood said.
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Successive British governments have been trying to reverse a rise in small boat crossings, which have become highly contentious among voters since they began around 2018. London signed a new three-year deal with Paris over the crossings in April, agreeing to pay up to 766 million euros ($897 million) to boost French law enforcement.
While small boat crossings have slowed down, there have been growing instances in recent months of migrants making the precarious journey packed into a single vessel. Earlier in August, a record 230 migrants crossed the Channel in one long dinghy, breaking the record of 165 people set in July.
French president Emmanuel Macron is due to visit Britain this week, with migrant crossings among the issues that he is expected to discuss with the UK's new prime minister Andy Burnham.
