JUST like the small boats crossing the English Channel – the shocking immigration figures keep coming and coming.
The latest Home Office statistics reveal that on Sunday more asylum seekers reached Britain’s shores on tiny sea vessels than any time so far this year.
AFPThe latest Home Office statistics reveal that on Sunday more asylum seekers reached Britain’s shores on tiny sea vessels than any time so far this year (stock picture)[/caption]
PAUK Border Force bring migrants to Dover after a small boat incident in the Channel[/caption]
There were 592 migrants in 11 of these perilous inflatables.
It is no surprise then that Stéphane Pinto, the mayor of Ambleteuse just south of Calais, has called on Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to “come and look at our beaches”.
Hundreds of migrants are in unsanitary camps without running water in and around the French port waiting to get over here.
In 2025 so far 2,716 asylum seekers have made the journey across the English Channel, which is far higher than the 2,225 that had made that trip by this time last year.
And it’s only going to get worse in this good weather.
But even more worrying was the data released last week, which revealed that 108,000 people claimed asylum in the UK in 2024.
That figure has almost doubled since 2021 and beats the previous record of 103,000 set in 2002.
Remember, these figures relate solely to “asylum seekers” and not to “refugees” who came under safe and legal routes — amounting to another 79,000 people.
How did so many people get here? Well, only 37,000 of the 108,000 asylum applicants were smuggled on small boats.
Indeed, only 44,000 came from all “irregular arrivals” — which includes lorry drops, inadequately documented air arrivals, and other forms of control evasion.
Therefore I assume that the other 64,000 applicants came as “regular” arrivals — having presumably been given a visa or permission to enter for some other purpose to get here in the first place.
While the government can’t control what France does to stop the boats it can control who gets a UK visa.
All visa applicants are fingerprinted at point of application, as are all asylum seekers.
So, it is quite easy for the Home Office to identify which asylum seekers came from what country, on what visa, and for what purpose.
They can even obtain a copy of their original passport, in case it happens to have “gone missing” along the way.
According to the latest government release, “internally matched data” for asylum claims suggests that around 20 per cent of people claiming asylum in 2023 held a valid visa within the seven days prior to the lodging of an asylum claim.
The Home Office is silent on this figure for 2024 or on any further analysis about how the other 64,000 asylum seekers got into the UK to make their claim, and on what basis.
It is always possible that events back home may occur whilst people are in the UK while on temporary visas here, which might give them reason to claim asylum.
But equally, many may be using weaknesses in our visa system as a backdoor into the UK in order to lodge an asylum claim.
A hard look at “internally matched data” would enable us to identify which posts abroad were being duped into granting visas to applicants ostensibly coming to visit, work or study in the UK to asylum seekers who are abusing the system. And to do something about it.
Backdoor into the UK
When I worked for the UK Border Force we had a strong word with whichever office was issuing visas to people who later turned out to be asylum seekers.
That’s not to say Sir Keir doesn’t need to pay attention to what’s going on around Calais as well.
Despite the latest overtures from France that they will fix a loophole in the law so they can stop “sea launches” rather than “beach launches”, this still falls well short of the safe third country returns agreement we would need to break the people smugglers’ business model.
With the repeal of the Safety of Rwanda Act now going through parliament, we can expect many more migrants to continue to cross by boat without any removal deterrent.
And the new measures to “smash the gangs” isn’t likely to make much difference either, given the profits involved and the endless supply of new gangs to take over from old ones.
But the very least we can do is crack down on “regular arrivals”.
We might never be able to completely stop people coming here to add to the asylum backlog — but we could at least stop scoring own goals like this.
Tony Smith is author of “Changing Borders – A Kingdom Unlocked”
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