More than 900 people cross Channel in small boats on Friday
14 June 2025, 11:59
More than 900 people crossed the Channel in small boats on Friday, according to Government figures.
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Data from the Home Office indicated 919 people made the journey in 14 boats on June 13, taking the provisional annual total to 16,183.
This is 42% higher than the same point last year and 79% up on the same date in 2023, according to PA news agency analysis.
It is not the highest daily number so far this year, which came on May 31, when 1,195 people arrived.
People thought to be migrants were pictured being brought into Dover on an RNLI lifeboat on Friday, while others were brought ashore by the Border Force.
Rachel Reeves announced earlier this week that the Government will end the use of hotels to house asylum seekers by the end of this parliament.
Unveiling her spending review on Wednesday, the Chancellor set out how funding will be provided to cut the asylum backlog.
She told MPs: "I can confirm today that led by the work of the Home Secretary, we will be ending the costly use of hotels to house asylum seekers in this parliament.
"Funding that I have provided today, including from the transformation fund, will cut the asylum backlog, hear more appeal cases and return people who have no right to be here, saving the taxpayer £1 billion a year."
A Home Office spokesperson said: "We all want to end dangerous small boat crossings, which threaten lives and undermine our border security.
"The people-smuggling gangs do not care if the vulnerable people they exploit live or die as long as they pay, and we will stop at nothing to dismantle their business models and bring them to justice.
"That is why this Government has put together a serious plan to take down these networks at every stage, and why we are investing up to an additional £280 million per year by 2028-29 in the Border Security Command.
"Through international intelligence-sharing under our Border Security Command, enhanced enforcement operations in northern France and tougher legislation in the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, we are strengthening international partnerships and boosting our ability to identify, disrupt and dismantle criminal gangs whilst strengthening the security of our borders."
