Nearly 700 migrants crossed English Channel on Monday beating 2022 record

Crossings at high-water mark for year a further sign UK's controversial Rwanda deportation plan is not working

Almost 700 migrants have crossed the Channel to the UK in a single day, a record for the year so far.

The Ministry of Defence said 696 made the journey in 14 boats on Monday.

That is the highest number on a single day so far this year, and only the second time in 2022 the daily figure has topped 600.

The previous highest number of Channel migrant crossings was 651, recorded on April 13.

The latest crossings saw large groups of people, including young children, brought ashore in Ramsgate before leaving the Kent port on double-decker buses.

The data suggests there was an average of about 50 on each boat on Monday.

More than 17,000 have arrived in the UK after navigating busy shipping lanes from France in small boats such as dinghies so far in 2022, according to government figures.

About 3,683 migrants made the crossing on 90 boats in July, the highest monthly total this year, PA news agency analysis of the figures shows.

Journeys took place on 20 out of 31 days.

It is more than three months since Home Secretary Priti Patel unveiled plans to send migrants to Rwanda to try to deter people from crossing the Channel.

Since then 11,827 have arrived in the UK after making the journey.

On April 14 Ms Patel signed what she described as a “world-first” agreement with Rwanda, under which the east African nation would receive migrants deemed by the UK to have arrived “illegally” and therefore inadmissible under new immigration rules.

But the first deportation flight to Rwanda on June 14 was grounded amid legal challenges.

Several asylum seekers, the Public and Commercial Services union and charities Care4Calais, Detention Action and Asylum Aid are challenging the legality of the Home Office policy, with the next court hearings due in September and October.