A total of 41,472 migrants arrived in the UK in 2025 after crossing the English Channel – the second highest annual figure on record.
The Home Office has confirmed that no migrants made the journey on New Year’s Eve, continuing a run of no crossings over the festive period.
It means the overall number of arrivals last year finished nine per cent below the all-time high of 45,774 in 2022.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s plan to “smash the gangs” had been “a complete disaster” and the “one in, one out” deal with France is a “farce”.
“The numbers coming over are huge,” he said. “Many of the young men that have arrived last year will do us great harm.”
The National reported this week that French police unions were opposing a new strategy approved by the Interior Ministry under UK pressure to intercept migrants in small boats leaving French shores.
Police have been urged to use more aggressive tactics, including stopping vessels already at sea in shallow waters, up to 300 metres from the shore.
This strategy is generally avoided by French police because it can lead to death or injury. Security forces tend to intervene on land instead, including by puncturing boats with knives.
UK shadow home secretary Chris Philp said pulling out of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) is the only way to take effective action.
He said: “Labour have confined themselves to cosmetic tweaks, hence only five per cent of arrivals have been removed. There is no deterrent and anyone who crosses the Channel know they can invoke human rights law and remain indefinitely. Labour lack the backbone to confront that truth.”
The total for 2025 was 13 per cent higher than the figure for 2024, when 36,816 migrants made the journey, and 41 per cent higher than the 2023 total of 29,437.
For much of 2025, the number of arrivals was running at the highest level since data on Channel crossings was first published in 2018.
But the pace slowed during the last two months of the year and there were long periods when no migrants arrived, including a 28-day run from November 15 to December 12.
The average number of people per boat rose again in 2025, continuing a trend that has been under way since 2018. There were an average of 62 arrivals per boat last year, up from 53 in 2024 and 49 in 2023.
The UK government faced increasing pressure in 2025 to tackle the number of migrants making the hazardous journey across the Channel, having won the general election in July 2024 vowing to “smash the gangs” of people smugglers that organise the crossings.
Nearly 65,000 migrants have arrived in the country by small boat since Labour came to power.
UK Border Security Commander Martin Hewitt, tasked with curbing Channel crossings, told MPs in October that the number of arrivals in 2025 is “frustrating” but that work to stop the smuggling route was “always going to take time”.
The Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act became law last month. It introduces new criminal offences and allows law enforcement agencies to use counter terror-style powers to crack down on people-smuggling gangs.
In November, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood also announced plans for a raft of reforms in what she described as “the most significant changes to our asylum system in modern times”.
Under changes inspired by the Danish system, refugee status will become temporary, with regular reviews every 30 months. Refugees will be forced to wait 20 years for permanent settlement in the UK, up from five years currently.
But the plans, which are yet to be introduced under legislation, sparked a backlash from a number of Labour MPs who branded the package “shameful”.
Meanwhile, Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said the measures did not go far enough, adding that leaving the ECHR was necessary to address the problem.
Both the Conservatives and Reform UK say quitting the human rights treaty is the way to tackle illegal immigration, but the Labour government has insisted it will not leave the ECHR and instead seek to adjust how immigration cases are interpreted in UK law.
Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy met ministers from ECHR member states last month. They agreed to consider reforming the treaty to address illegal migration.
International co-operation has also formed part of the government’s strategy and resulted in the “one in, one out” returns deal with France that came into force in August.
Under the pilot scheme people who arrive in the UK by small boat can be detained and returned to France, in exchange for an equivalent number of people who apply through a safe and legal route.
On December 16, Border Security Minister Alex Norris told peers that 193 migrants had been sent back to France and 195 had arrived in the UK under the returns deal, which aims to deter people from making the dangerous journey across the Channel.
But the scheme has drawn criticism for being “no deterrent at all” by Mr Philp, amid cases of two migrants returning to the UK after being removed to France under the deal. They have since been deported again.
At least 17 people died while attempting the journey last year, according to reports by French and UK authorities, but there is no official record of fatalities in the Channel.
The International Organisation for Migration has reported the deaths of 36 people believed to be linked to attempts to travel from mainland Europe to the UK.
Reacting to the total number of Channel crossings for 2025, Refugee Council chief executive Enver Solomon said: “Most men, women and children taking these journeys have fled oppressive regimes like the Taliban in Afghanistan and brutal civil wars in countries like Sudan.
“No-one risks their life on a flimsy boat in the Channel except out of desperation to be safe in a country where they have family or community connections.
“It’s right the government wants to stop Channel crossings but plans that will punish people found to be refugees are unfair and not an effective deterrent.”
He added that there needs to be a “multipronged approach”, including targeting gangs and international co-operation to ensure refugees can access safe and legal routes – something Ms Mahmood has included in plans to overhaul the asylum system.
The Home Secretary’s asylum reforms could also end the UK government’s legal duty to provide asylum seeker support, which means housing and weekly allowances for asylum seekers will not be guaranteed.
The government has promised to end the housing of asylum seekers in hotels by 2029 amid mounting pressure over rising costs and a backlash in local communities.
A wave of protests took place over the summer centred particularly around the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, after an asylum seeker who had arrived by small boat in the UK and was temporarily housed there was charged and later jailed and deported for sexually assaulting a woman and a 14-year-old girl.
