French authorities have confirmed that 12 people have died after a boat carrying migrants capsized in the Channel. Thousands of people attempt to cross the Channel in small boats every year, with UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announcing that he plans to take tougher measures against the people-smuggling gangs responsible.
As of 2nd September 2024, 21,403 people had crossed the channel, more than the same period in the previous year but fewer than in 2022. In 2023 as a whole, 29,437 people, came to the UK in small boats. Since 2018, more than 135,000 people have come to the UK by the same route.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimates that at least 189 migrants have died in the English Channel between 2018 and 19 August 2024. Before the recent incident, 30 people had already died trying to cross the channel in 2024, the highest figure for any year since 2021. The highest recorded number of deaths from a single incident was in November 2021, where at least 27 migrants died after a dinghy sank.
Afghans made up almost a fifth of all small boat arrivals in the year to June 2024, according to the latest official statistics. Iranians made up the second-largest group, followed by arrivals from Vietnam and Turkey. Over 83% of small boat arrivals in this period were male and, where age was recorded, over 40% were between 25 and 39 years old.
According to the most recent figures, just over 97,000 people claimed asylum in the year to the end of June 2024. The number of annual applications for asylum, including dependents, peaked at about 103,000 in 2002, as people fled conflicts in Afghanistan, Somalia, and Iraq. Claims then fell sharply, dropping to a 20-year low of 22,600 in 2010. However, numbers rose again throughout the 2010s as refugees fled Syria.
As of the end of June 2024, there were 85,839 cases relating to 118,882 people awaiting an initial decision. In the same year, 7,190 people who were not granted asylum were returned to their home countries, an increase of 48% from the previous year, mainly due to Albanian returns. In the same year, 2,336 people who arrived in small boats were returned
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