Small boat crossings drop to seven-year low over summer despite hot weather

Small boat crossings drop to seven-year low over summer despite hot weather Latest figures show a sharp drop in small boat crossings in June, July and August - but Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood admitted there is more to do Small boat crossings were at their lowest in seven years this summer despite the hot weather, new figures show. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood welcomed a dramatic fall in the number of people making the dangerous journey, but said there is more to be done. Arrivals dropped by 46% in June, July and August compared to last year. Data released by the Home Office show the lowest total crossings since 2019 and the lowest number of people reaching the UK since 2020. There were 7,416 arrivals between June 1 and August 30 - compared to 15,458 over the same period in 2022 and 12,421 in 2022 under the Tories. Ms Mahmood said: “This Government is committed to restoring order at our border. This work is beginning to bear fruit, with June, July and August recording the lowest number of small boat crossings in seven years. "But we know there is more to do. We will be relentless in targeting the criminal gangs behind these crossings, and we will continue to remove the incentives that draw people here on unsafe and illegal routes." Earlier this year Ms Mahmood signed a new agreement with France to ramp up police enforcement on French beaches by 40%. In the first three months 185 small boat crossings were prevented - 61% of the dangerous journeys in that time. The government faces pressure to tackle crossings, with a record 230 people packed onto a single boat raising the alarm last month. Ms Mahmood is pushing through a raft of measures, including a streamlined appeals process and a new charge of around £10,000 for successful asylum seekers to pay for the support while they waited for a decision. But many Labour MPs are concerned about the proposals, while campaign groups have called on the government to instead focus on ramping up safe routes to end the reliance on smuggling gangs. Since the general election in 2024, more than 48,000 crossing attempts have been prevented, the Home Office said. More than 1,100 boats and engings have been seized by the National Crime Agency, and returns are at their highest level in a decade. The number of people in asylum hotels has been halved in a year, and the asylum backlog fell by 56% in the year to June 30. This week Andy Burnham is set to meet French President Emmanuel Macron in Downing Street. Tackling small boat crossings and strengthening border security cooperation will be at the top of the agenda. It comes after Reform UK announced plans to dispatch the Royal Navy in the Channel, only for the proposal to swiftly collapse. France said Nigel Farage's proposal would violate French sovereignty as it torpedoed the headline-grabbing idea.