Record Single Day Number of Illegal Boat Crossings on the English Channel

RNLI lifeboat — British forces were overwhelmed using the RNLI and fishing boats to rescue people from the channel (RNLI Dover file photo)

A record 1,378 illegal migrants are believed to have crossed the English Channel on May 31, the highest figure of crossings yet recorded. It surpasses the 1,305 migrants who made it across the Channel on September 3, 2022.

So far this year, approximately 14,600 migrants have made it across the Channel, the highest figure recorded for the first five-month period, and putting 2025 on course to have the highest number of illegal entrants since the Norman Invasion of 1066. This presents a particular problem for Britain’s Labour Government, as reducing illegal migration across the Channel was a key election manifesto promise. Delivery was supposed to demonstrate an administrative efficiency which Labour officials asserted was lacking in the previous Conservative administration.

The influx on May 31 overwhelmed the UK’s maritime services. With Border Force vessels fully occupied transporting illegal migrants rescued from the Channel to safety in Dover, fishing boats were called upon by the Coastguard to rescue a number of other boats at sea that had got into difficulties. The RNLI lifeboat from Dover was also spotted by onlookers bringing people to shore.

The organizers of the smuggling trade tend to intensify their operations during calm weather when they are able to grossly overload the disposable rubber boats used to make the crossing.

Notwithstanding the dangers involved in cramming so many aboard, the French police do not prevent departures of the boats from French beaches, and the smuggling organizers know that once the boats reach the median line in the Channel, their occupants will be rescued by the British Border Force and carried to safety.

Even in calm weather, the Channel crossing is extremely hazardous, as the Channel is one of the world’s busiest sea lanes. The area where the migrants are attempting the crossing is approximately 30 miles between the French and British coasts. If the weather deteriorates during the crossing, the overloaded rubber boats are easily swamped in a rising swell. Beside the risk of drowning, acute for the infirm and young children on board, there is also a risk of hypothermia even in the mildest of English weather.

British government attempts to curtail the traffic have focused on identifying and prosecuting the organizers of the smuggling traffic. Given however the laws of supply and demand, the lucrative nature of the trade means that arrested smugglers are soon replaced. Nor is there a shortage of customers, as the cost of an illegal passage across the Channel is considerably cheaper than securing legal entry, and can also be quicker.

Illegal entry is also attractive because once arrivals set foot on dry land and claim asylum, they become eligible for food, hotel accommodation, and national health services while their asylum applications are processed, which can take many years.