The number of people crossing the Channel to seek asylum in the UK hit a record for the year so far on Monday, as Border Force officials prepare for thousands more arrivals this summer.
The Ministry of Defense said 696 traveled in 14 small boats on Monday. It followed 460 arrivals on Saturday and 247 on Friday, with more than 1,000 people crossing last week.
In July, 3,683 people crossed from France. The total for this year is believed to be over 17,000.
The figures come amid reports of growing concern over plans to freeze the number of boats carrying asylum seekers across the English Channel.
The latest figures were taken by critics of the government’s policy towards Rwanda as evidence that it had not had the deterrent effect on the number of asylum seekers, as government ministers claimed.
Paul O’Connor, head of negotiations for the PCS union – which represents Border Force staff – said: ‘These statistics seriously undermine the government’s claim that their policy of deporting people to Rwanda is acting as a deterrent. It is time for the government to abandon the scheme and move to an asylum system based on humanity, not hostility.
Defense chiefs are also said to be fed up with trying to implement the Prime Minister and Home Secretary’s rapidly crumbling plan to use the military to control small boats in the Channel.
Home Office sources admitted the UK could welcome up to 60,000 people in small boats this year – double last year’s record – with a further 20,000 arriving via various routes.
On Tuesday, large groups of recent arrivals, including young children, were seen being brought ashore at Ramsgate before leaving Kent Harbor in double-decker buses.
In April, the government announced plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda as part of a five-year process.
Johnson, backed by Home Secretary Priti Patel, said the new plan “will prove to be a very significant deterrent over time.”
But the deal has been heavily criticized for failing to limit the numbers, as well as being expensive and breaching human rights laws. Since it was signed, 11,827 asylum seekers have arrived in the UK.
The first deportation flight was blocked after a late intervention by the European Court of Human Rights.
The Home Affairs Committee last month found there was “no clear evidence” that the UK’s plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda would stop risky Channel crossings.
A recent Home Office report said the Border Force may have exacerbated the small boat crisis.
Commissioned by Patel, it concluded that the resources needed to prevent small boats crossing the English Channel from entering the UK illegally were “unsustainable”.
Alex Downer, the former leader of the Australian Liberal Party who carried out the review, criticized a “cycle of crisis management” in the final report. Patel welcomed his “constructive recommendations”.
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The Rwanda deal cost an initial £120 million, much of which has already been spent by the Rwandan government. The payment does not include the cost of flights, housing for five years or other benefits given to anyone relocated to the central African country.
Several asylum seekers, the public and commercial services union and charities including Care4Calais and Detention Aid are challenging the legality of the policy, with court hearings scheduled for September and October.
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