Big Increase in Illegal Immigrants Crossing Channel as Rwanda Threat Lingers

In the last week alone 1,106 people arrived in Kent

Illegal immigrants who crossed the English Channel in small boats stand talking to each other at their temporary home at Napier Barracks in Folkestone, Kent, on March 7, 2023. PA

Small boat crossings in the English Channel have begun to surge again with 1,106 illegal immigrants arriving on the English coast in the last week.

That figure—which includes 492 people on April 5 alone—compares to 3,793 for the first three months of the year.