
Small boats leave France after week of no migrant crossing arrivals
A group including children was seen boarding at a beach in Gravelines, between Calais and Dunkirk.
French authorities were then pictured escorting a small boat.
There have not been any arrivals of migrants crossing the Channel in small boats for a week, the latest Home Office figures show.
But 2025 is on course to set a record for Channel crossings, with more than 13,000 people having arrived so far, up 30% on the number recorded at this point last year, according to analysis of the data by the PA news agency.
Sir Keir Starmer has pledged to crack down on small boat crossings including with measures targeting smuggling gangs.
The Home Secretary has previously said gangs have been taking advantage of a higher number of calm weather days to make crossings.
Sunny weather is forecast on Saturday with some areas potentially hitting 27C.

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Daily Mail
29 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Keir Starmer comes under pressure to sack his top legal adviser after he likened Right-wing British politicians to Nazis as minister refuses to say his job is safe
A cabinet minister minister refused to say Lord Hermer was safe in his job yesterday after likening Right-wing British politicians to Nazis. Sir Keir Starmer is under pressure to sack his Attorney General over controversial comments he made in a speech last week that were seen as directed towards the Tories and Reform UK. Asked twice yesterday whether Lord Hermer's job was safe, Defence Secretary John Healey did not directly address the question. 'He's a really good attorney general. He made a mistake. He apologised. We move on,' Mr Healey told Trevor Phillips on Sky News. The Government's legal chief has suffered a backlash for referencing 1930s Germany as he criticised other parties for saying Britain should quit institutions such as the European Convention on Human Rights. He faced calls to quit from opposition parties for his claims that their actions are akin to those of Nazi ideologists who called for state power to trump the law. He also faced criticism from Labour MPs and Cabinet ministers. The Prime Minister's long-time friend and ally was eventually forced to apologise for his 'clumsy' language, though he 'rejected' how it had been portrayed. His remarks are also unhelpful for Labour, which is under pressure from Nigel Farage's Reform after its sweeping gains in the local elections. Ministers are looking to legally constrain judges' interpretation of international law over concerns it prevents foreign criminals and failed asylum seekers – including sex offenders – from deportation. Yesterday, Labour MP and ex-minister Graham Stringer accused the Attorney General of aiding the rise of Reform by ignoring voter concerns about immigration. He told The Mail on Sunday: 'He's convincing Labour voters [that the party] does not understand their legitimate concerns about immigration. 'It is not far-Right and Nazi to raise genuine concerns about the scale of immigration and the cost of housing migrants. He's doing Reform's work for them.' A spokesman insisted Sir Keir has full confidence in Lord Hermer, but it comes after several controversial interventions by the legal chief. He has upset colleagues over his adherence to international agreements and low-risk approach to legal challenges – and has also been accused of leading the 'surrender' of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius under the terms of a questionable deal. Mr Stringer added: 'Lord Hermer should never have been appointed in the first place. It's his ridiculous advice that has led us to spend £30billion to keep a military base we already had.' And Labour peer Lord Glasman, founder of the influential Blue Labour movements, added that the Attorney General's remarks made him 'unfit for government office'. Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick and Reform deputy Richard Tice have all called for Lord Hermer to go.


The Sun
43 minutes ago
- The Sun
People-smugglers are using boats ‘like taxis' says John Healey, as 1,194 cross channel in a DAY
Julia Atherley Jack Elsom Published: Invalid Date, BRAZEN people-smugglers used boats 'like a taxi' to pick up migrant masses from French beaches and ferry them to the UK. Police stood and watched as the gangs took advantage of calm seas on Saturday to launch 18 boats for the use of mostly young men. 4 4 A total of 1,194 people made the crossing successfully, the highest number in a day since 2022. Officials said only 184 were stopped — fewer than 15 per cent. Photos of smiling migrants in the boats crossing the Channel emerged later on social media. It comes despite a deal agreed in 2023 to pay the French £480million to stop the crossings. Defence Secretary John Healey described the weekend scenes from the French beaches as 'shocking'. He said: 'Truth is, Britain's lost control of its borders over the last five years.' He said the smugglers were dodging waiting cops by 'launching elsewhere and coming around like a taxi'. Mr Healey said it was a 'really big problem' that, under French law, the police were not allowed to intervene once boats were in shallow waters. However, he said that 'for the first time' France had agreed to 'change the way they work' so boats could be intercepted once launched 'and not just on the shore'. It was a catastrophic mistake by our weak Prime Minister to cancel the Conservatives' Rwanda removals deterrent just days before it was due to start Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp The total of arrivals so far this year is 14,811, Home Office figures show — the most in the first five months of a year since data was first recorded in 2018. Scores of migrants board overloaded dinghies to make dangerous Channel crossing to UK - as French cops watch on With more good weather on the way, the number of crossings is expected to rise. Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said Labour's claim that it would smash the gangs lay in tatters after 'the worst day of the worst year for illegal immigrants crossing the Channel'. He told The Sun: 'It was a catastrophic mistake by our weak Prime Minister to cancel the Conservatives' Rwanda removals deterrent just days before it was due to start. 'The Government now needs to demand that the French intercept these boats at sea and return them to France, like the Belgians do.' He added: 'The French interception rate on land is pathetic and those they catch are just released and then try again the next day. The people-smuggling gangs do not care if the vulnerable people they exploit live or die as long as they pay. We will stop at nothing to dismantle their business models Spokesman 'And every single illegal immigrant that arrives in the UK should be immediately removed to a place outside Europe. Then the crossings would soon stop. It's as simple as that. This madness must end.' A Home Office source said: 'We've developed strong co-operation with the French and it is important that they have agreed to disrupt these boats once they're in the water — and not just on the shore. 'This vital step now needs to be operationalised to protect border security and save lives.' The Home Office said international intelligence-sharing and enhanced enforcement in France would help to combat the problem. A spokesman 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. We will stop at nothing to dismantle their business models.' 4 4


Times
an hour ago
- Times
Up to 50,000 migrants could cross Channel this year
Britain is on course for up to 50,000 migrant crossings this year according to new analysis after daily arrivals topped 1,000 for the first time this year and a new row broke out with the French. Home Office figures revealed 1,195 migrants arrived in 19 boats on Saturday — the highest daily tally so far this year and the fourth highest figure recorded. The French prevented a further ten boats from entering the water, according to UK government sources. However, the French rescued only 184 migrants from the sea on Saturday, despite agreeing in February to amend laws to allow police to intercept boats in shallow waters. Intelligence gathered by Border Force has estimated that more than 2,000 migrants are waiting to make the journey amid forecasts of a 'catastrophic' summer of crossings. Videos posted on TikTok showed migrants celebrating as they crossed the Channel packed into unseaworthy dinghies. Saturday's arrivals took the total number to have crossed so far this year to 14,811 — the highest figure recorded for the first five months of the year and 42 per cent higher than this time last year. Analysis by The Times, using similar modelling as previous Border Force methods to estimate future arrivals, has forecast that a further 35,000 are on course to arrive by the end of the year. This would take the final tally for 2025 to 50,000 crossings, according to a formula that has accurately predicted monthly crossings in previous years. A Border Force source said it did not recognise this figure and suggested the number would be lower. John Healey, the defence secretary, branded the scenes on Saturday 'shocking' and showed Britain had 'lost control of its borders'. But he rejected suggestions from Nigel Farage that the government should use the Royal Navy to stop the boats crossing the Channel by intercepting them and returning them to France. Healey told Times Radio: 'The Royal Navy is a part of defending the country, not policing the borders. They have the equipment to do that job, not a border force job. They'll back up with intelligence, with surveillance, with communications, with operational control and we're willing to play a part where we've got a special contribution to play. 'But the first job of the defence forces is to keep the country safe and that's my job as defence secretary.' Farage hit back, arguing that the strategy of deploying navy boats to pick up and return migrant boats was effective in Australia when Tony Abbott, the prime minister at the time, instructed the authorities to turn back boats. The Reform UK leader said: 'I would have thought protecting our borders is the primary task of the Royal Navy. If that's not the job of the Royal Navy then I don't know why he's the defence secretary. 'The idea that the Royal Navy isn't there to defend the borders is ridiculous. If it absolutely comes to it then we'd get the Royal Navy to do what Tony Abbott did when he towed boats back to Indonesia. The whole world went mad but it soon stopped the boats.' The French have intercepted just 38 per cent of boats this year, down from 45 per cent last year and 47 per cent in 2023. It is the lowest rate since small boats began ferrying migrants to the UK on a regular basis in 2018 and has come despite a three-year, £480 million deal Britain struck with France to help intercept migrants in 2023. Healey said it was a 'really big problem' that the French authorities were unable to intervene to intercept the boats three months on from agreeing to amend its laws. Local mayors on the French coast said that police officers often faced dangers when intercepting migrants GARETH FULLER/PA Calling on the French to follow through on their pledge, Healey told Sky News: 'They're not doing it, but for the first time we've got the level of co-operation needed, we've got the agreement that they will change the way they work. Our concentration now is to push them to get that into operation, so they can intercept these smugglers and stop these people in the boats, not just on the shore. 'That'll be part of, I hope, dealing with this absolutely intolerable problem.' The defence secretary said Britain had 'lost control of its borders over the last five years'. Asked to give his reaction to the numbers that crossed on Saturday, he said: 'Pretty shocking, those scenes. We saw the smugglers launching elsewhere and coming around like a taxi to pick them up.' Photos have emerged of more than half a dozen French police officers standing by as they watched migrants enter the water to clamber on to boats. One officer was seen taking photos of the scenes on a beach at Gravelines, near Dunkirk. Local mayors in the region have highlighted the dangers for police on the beaches. Marc Sarpaux, the mayor of Audinghen, west of Calais, said that two officers had been taken to hospital after being pelted with stones by migrants. Bruno Retailleau, the French interior minister, was silent on the daily record high of migrant crossings. Instead, he posted on social media about Paris Saint-Germain's victory