Border guards seize yacht as migrants cross Channel

Another four people died in the Channel in the previous week, when good weather increased the number of crossings.

Figures from the Home Office show that 413 people crossed the Channel in seven small boats on Friday, taking the total so far this year to 15,489.

That is approximately 10 percent more than the number of border crossings in the same period last year and 0.1 percent more than the number in the same period in 2022, the year with the most border crossings ever measured.

A Home Office spokesman said: “We all want to see an end to dangerous small boat crossings, which undermine border security and put lives at risk.

“The new Government is taking steps to improve our border security by establishing a new Border Security Command that will bring together our intelligence and law enforcement agencies, equipped with new counter-terrorism powers and hundreds of staff based in the UK and abroad to help defeat criminal smuggling gangs that are making millions in profits.”