Eritreans now most common nationality of migrants crossing Channel
Eritreans have become the most common nationality of migrants arriving in the UK after crossing the English Channel, new figures show.
Some 1,291 arrivals in the first three months of 2025 were from the East African country, 20% of the 6,420 whose nationality was known.
It is the first time Eritrea has accounted for the largest number of people making the journey per quarter.
The figure is up from 13% in October-December 2024 and 8% in July-September.
In both of those quarters Afghan was the most common nationality.
It comes as 825 migrants arrived in the UK on Wednesday after crossing the Channel, the highest number on a single day so far this year.
The cumulative number of arrivals by small boats in 2025 now stands at a provisional total of 13,573, 37% higher than at the same point last year.
The latest data of the nationality of migrants has been published by the Home Office.
It shows that Afghan nationals made up the second largest group of arrivals in January to March of this year, accounting for 13% of the total, compared with 20% for Eritrea.
This was followed by people from Sudan (12%), Vietnam (8%) and Iran (8%).
The rise in Eritrean migrants is the most recent example of a change in the mix of nationalities making the journey in small boats.
Vietnamese was the most common nationality in both January to March and April to June 2024, accounting for 20% and 15% of arrivals respectively.
In response, the then Conservative government signed an agreement with Vietnam to step up efforts to discourage illegal travel to the UK.
The two countries committed to develop a joint action plan to tackle human trafficking, as well as increase intelligence-sharing and raise awareness of legal routes for migration.
The proportion of arrivals from Vietnam subsequently fell to 8% in July-September and 4% in October-December, though it rose to 8% in January-March this year.
Following a spike in summer 2022 in the number of Albanians arriving in the UK on small boats, the governments of both countries struck an agreement to work together to prevent people from making the journey.
This included placing UK Border Force staff in Tirana airport in the capital of Albania, an exchange of senior police officers and the creation of a joint migration task force.
Albanian nationals accounted for 28% of arrivals in 2022 but only 3% in 2023 and 2% in 2024.
The latest figures on Channel crossings also show that nearly all the 6,420 migrants arriving in the first three months of this year whose nationality was known went on to make a claim for asylum (6,369 or 99%).
Since the start of 2018, when data on Channel crossings was first recorded, 94% of migrants arriving in the UK this way have claimed asylum, or 145,834 out of 154,354 people.
Of the 145,834 to claim asylum, 59% (86,646) have received a decision on their claim, and 39% (56,605) have been granted asylum or some other protection status.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Glasgow Times
17 minutes ago
- Glasgow Times
Labour to end hotels for asylum seekers says Rachel Reeves
The chancellor announced the plan today in the Spending Review, She said putting asylum seekers up in hotels was a costly policy and her plan would save £1billion. Reeves told the House of Commons the government would 'End the use of hotels for asylum seekers by the end of this parliament". She said that to achieve it, more money will be invested in cutting the asylum backlog and ensuring more hearings took place. She did not state where asylum seekers would be housed instead. Glasgow has been home to thousands of asylum seekers, under the UK dispersal programme and many have been housed in hotels in the city. The city takes in more than nine out of ten asylum seekers in Scotland. The city council has asked the government to pause sending more asylum seekers to the city as it places unbearable pressure on public services. The pressure comes as more people are pushed through the process, leading to a rise in homelessness, as hundreds become homeless when they are given leave to remain. People are moved out of their Home Office-funded asylum seeker accommodation, and then they need to find their own housing. Many end up homeless and have to be put up by the council in temporary accommodation. More than half of the people in temporary accommodation in Glasgow are refugees. There are currently 4887 people with refugee status in Glasgow in temporary accommodation out of a total 8279 people. In hotels, the picture is similar. Of the 1972 people in 40 hotels and B&Bs for homeless people, 1417 are refugees. The chancellor's statement only applies to asylum seekers in hotels and not refugees. Glasgow City Council has said the policy of the previous, Conservative, UK Government to speed up hearings and get more people through the asylum process led to the housing emergency in the city.
Daily Mail
26 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Rachel Reeves vows to end use of 'costly' hotels to house asylum seekers - but not for up to four years
has vowed to end the 'costly' use of hotels to house asylum-seekers – but not for up to four years. In her Spending Review speech, the Chancellor said migrants would be moved out of hotels by the end of the current Parliament, with the next general election not due until 2029. She also promised £1billion of savings by speeding up the asylum system, along with £280million more investment in future years for the new Border Security Command. 'The party opposite left behind a broken system: billions of pounds of taxpayers' money spent on housing asylum seekers in hotels, leaving people in limbo and shunting the cost of failure onto local communities. We won't let that stand,' Ms Reeves told the Commons. 'So 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.' But the Tories said taking asylum-seekers out of hotels would simply move them into rented accommodation across the country, while speeding up asylum decisions would mean more people granted leave to remain. Julia Lopez wrote on Twitter/X: 'The Home Office just wants people off their books as fast as possible - straight onto the books of local councils. 'That means more positive asylum decisions - only making it more attractive to cross. And so it will go on.' Shadow Home Office minister Matt Vickers added: 'Rachel Reeves claims Labour will ' end the use of asylum hotels '. 'But if they won't commit to deport all illegal immigrants, where will they go? Coming to a house on your street?' Latest figures show £3.1billion was spent on housing asylum-seekers in hotels in 2023-24, out of a total asylum support bill of £4.7bn. More than 30,000 asylum-seekers are currently housed in about 200 hotels across Britain, and ministers are currently looking at moving them into derelict tower blocks and student digs instead. The Spending Review document published by HM Treasury shows the Home Office's budget will fall by 2.2 per cent in real terms over the next few years, from £22billion in the current financial year to just £22.3bn in 2028-29. Earlier this week Downing Street was forced to deny claims that Home Secretary Yvette Cooper was on 'resignation watch' after heated discussions with the Chancellor over her department's budget.
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Family visa income requirement should be lowered, says review
Campaigners have welcomed a much-anticipated review into family visa requirements previously labelled a 'tax on love' by a Bristol Home Office said it is considering recommendations which include lowering the minimum income required for a British partner or settled resident to apply for a visa for their partner in the UK, currently set at £29, Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) has reviewed the impact of the current visa process on families, including on children's mental health and the right to family of Reunite Families UK, Caroline Coombs, from Bristol, said "children are the biggest victims of these rules". The minimum income requirement (MIR) has long been contested by couples who are unable to meet the threshold and, in some cases, are therefore forced to live introduced in 2012, it increased from £18,600 to £29,000 in April 2024, as part of measures by the previous Conservative government to reduce Labour government commissioned an independent review of the policy, which has been carried out by the MAC, and was published on current threshold applies only to the British partner or settled resident and does not account for potential earnings from the foreign partner once settled in the UK - a rule the review is also calling on the Government to reconsider. The review received 2,089 responses - the highest ever for a MAC consultation - and contributions from 36 Families UK, a not-for-profit helping families navigate the UK family visa route, provided evidence including testimonies from families evidence relating to the mental health of the children analysis reported, as well as feeling stress and loneliness, some children showed symptoms of anxiety, selective mutism and inability to focus in testimony included in the review reads: "My daughter's lived without her dad since she was six. From six to 11, the main memory of childhood is with her dad through a screen."Caroline Coombs, co-founder and Executive Director of Reunite Families UK, said: "The Home Secretary previously said that her work would be led by evidence."We ask her to look to that evidence - those very real-life experiences - when it comes to making her decisions which could ultimately make or break British citizens and settled residents' family life." 'MIR should be removed' The MAC review considered various factors including whether lowering the income requirement would increase net suggested a range of possible new thresholds. For example, it said a level between £23,000 to £25,000 would enable families to support did suggest lowering the threshold from £29,000 to roughly £24,000 may increase net immigration by up to 8,000 Ms Coombs said the Government should consider removing the MIR altogether:"Any threshold even at minimum wage would still separate many groups of people who just want to be a family here in the UK," she said. Carla Denyer, Green Party co-leader and MP for Bristol Central, described the minimum income requirements for family visas as a "cruel tax on love"."[It] tears families apart and puts untold stress on those with the misfortune to simply fall in love with someone who is not from this country," she said she has heard "devastating stories" from constituents who have been "forced to move halfway across the world" because of the income threshold."Whether it's for love, for work, or to flee violence or oppression, people move – that's a fact of life, and it's down to the government to make it work," she said. 'Real trade-off' Net migration in 2024 was an estimated 431,000 people, down almost 50% on the previous year. This followed record high levels in recent years, with the government under political pressure to get numbers down previous Conservative government planned to increase the threshold further, to £38,700, thus aligning it to the Skilled Worker the MAC said it "did not understand the rationale" for it and said a higher threshold was "likely to conflict with international law and obligations", referring to Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which enshrines the right to family chairman Prof Brian Bell said balancing family life and economic wellbeing was a "real trade-off"."There is a cost to the UK economy and UK taxpayers of having this route, and we should just be honest about that and say there is a trade-off," he said."But similarly, on the other side, people who say 'we should set it at very high numbers to make sure that we don't lose any money' ignore the massive impact that has on families and the destruction of some relationships and the harm it causes to children."A Home Office spokesperson said the government was considering the review's findings and would respond in due course.
