As Sir Keir Starmer settles into his new government, he plans to slash small boat crossings by tackling the smuggling gangs.
How Many Crossings Are There?
As of 19 August 2024, 19,294 people had made the crossing. This is more than last year but less than the peak in 2022.
What Happened to Rwanda?
The new Labour government has cancelled the previous conservatives’ flagship deportation to Rwanda.
How Many in Recent Years?
In 2023, people crossed the channel in a small boat. In 2022, there were 45,755, the highest number since the figures were first collected in 2018.
What Is the Total Over the Past Six Years?
More than 130,000 people have come to the UK by small boats.
So, Who Is Crossing the Channel Using This Method?
One-fifth of all the small boat crossings were made by Afghans fleeing Afghanistan. 13% were from Iran and 10% from Vietnam and Turkey.
What Are the Details of Who’s Crossing?
In the 12 months to June, 83% of people arriving by small boats were male. The highest recorded age range of these was 25-39.
How Many People Have Died?
There have been recorded – at least 189 deaths while people have tried to cross the channel in small boats, with numerous reports of deaths throughout the year.
How Many Asylum Seekers Are There?
The number of people who claimed asylum in the UK is over 97,000 for the year to June 2024. The peak for asylums was in 2002 at 103,000 people who fled Somalia, Iraq and Afghanistan.
When Was the Lowest Number of Asylum Seekers?
After the peak in 2002, numbers fell in 2010 to a 20-year low of 22,600. Numbers rose again in the 2010’s as people fled Syria and claimed asylum. In 2022, applications were around 100,000 again, highlighting global instability and war causing the mass movement of people to the UK and Europe, in particular from eastern Europe and the Middle East.
People Coming From the Far East and the Middle East.
The most significant number of asylum seekers was from Afghanistan at 9,342 from the year to the end of June 2024. Countries like Pakistan, Iran, India, Bangladesh, and Vietnam are among the countries with the highest number of people entering the UK.
Who Was the Number One Nationality in 2022?
Albanians topped all other countries in 2022, with 17,300 people claiming asylum, and three-quarters of these arrived by crossing the English Channel in small boats.
Are Ukrainians Included?
After Russia invaded Ukraine, the number of Ukrainians claiming asylum was not included in the figures. This decision was made because of an exceptional circumstance. A total of 262,100 visas were given to Ukrainian refugees, who came to the UK through official channels and schemes set up by the then-current Conservative government, with wide support from the public.
What Larger Schemes Are There Other Than the Ukrainian Scheme?
Hong Kong had a scheme to allow Hong Kong citizens to claim a visa for residency after the territory was handed back to China, and then China had massive clampdowns on its citizens who were protesting about arbitrary laws that the Chinese regime was imposing through Hong Kong’s parliament.
How Many Cases of Asylum Are There to Be Processed?
The average wait is several months to years before a case is even considered. In the year ending June 2024, 85,839 cases involving 118,882 people were yet to be processed.
What Was the Conservatives Record?
Official figures show that at the end of 2023, 4,500 complex cases were awaiting decisions, and 2,377 applications were still waiting for the Home Office’s initial decision.
How Many Asylum Seekers Were Returned?
When people overstay or are refused Asylum at the border, the Home Office can forcibly return them to their country of residence. In the year to June 2024, 7,190 people who were refused asylum were returned. This is a 48% rise compared to the previous year, with Albanian returns accounting for much of this rise.
How Many People Were Returned Who Came by Small Boats?
In June 2024, 2,336 people who arrived by small boat across the channel were returned to their home countries. In the previous six years, a total of 3,788 people were returned to their home countries after arriving by small boats in that period.
Are Returns for People Coming via Small Boats That Low?
The previous conservative government revealed that since 2018, 408 people returned to their home countries on small boats—a low number compared to other areas involving the return of people.
How Many People Arrive in Europe via Small Boats in Comparison to the UK?
Two hundred sixty-three thousand forty-eight people arrived by small boat in southern Europe in 2023. This mainly affected Italy, with 60% of this number, with Spain receiving 57,071 and Greece receiving 41,561. It peaked in 2015 for Europe when nearly a million people entered via small boats, mainly due to the conflict in Syria.
How Many People Apply for Asylum in Europe?
The numbers across Europe are, in some cases, much higher than the UK’s figures for Asylum. Germany received 329,035, Spain 160,460, France 145,095, and Italy 130,565. Overall, the picture is varied but shows a general increase in Asylum cases, particularly when conflicts in the world rage and cause people’s displacement.
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Featured Image Credit: Shutterstock / Sean Aidan Calderbank.