Overview
- Home Office data show 41,472 arrivals in 2025, up 13% on 2024 and 41% on 2023, yet 9% below the 2022 peak of 45,774.
- Crossings slowed late in the year with prolonged weather-related pauses, but the average load rose to 62 people per boat, up from 53 in 2024.
- Ministers point to the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act passed in December and proposed reforms that would make refugee status temporary with a 20-year path to settlement.
- Under the one-in, one-out pilot with France, 193 people were returned and 195 transferred to the UK, as Conservatives attack low removal rates and claim only about 5% of arrivals have been removed under Labour.
- Fatality reporting remains inconsistent, with at least 17 deaths recorded by UK and French authorities and roughly 36 cited by the International Organization for Migration.