973 Illegal Immigrants Cross English Channel in One Day

Published on October 7, 2024

A total of 973 illegal immigrants crossed the English Channel in 17 boats on Saturday, the highest number in a single day so far this year. According to Home Office figures, that brings the total for 2024 to 26,612, higher than the 25,330 who had arrived by this time last year. However, the figure is still lower than at the same date in 2022, when 33,611 people had entered the UK illegally crossing the Channel by boat. Last month, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper pledged £75 million to the new multi-agency Border Security Command tasked with tackling illegal immigration, to be spent on monitoring technology, new covert capabilities, improving intelligence-sharing across the UK’s police forces, and recruiting additional personnel at the National Crime Agency....