Home Office figures published on Saturday show 288 people made the journey in five boats on Friday (Picture: Reuters)
More than 10,000 migrants have arrived in the UK so far this year after crossing the Channel.
Home Office figures published on Saturday show 288 people made the journey in five boats on Friday, taking the provisional total for 2024 to date to 10,170.
It is a new record for this stage in the year, passing the 9,326 who made the perilous crossing by this point in 2022.
Last year it took until June 17 to reach the 10,000 mark.
The Home Office said the latest figures show ‘exactly why we must get flights to Rwanda off the ground as soon as possible’.
The Government’s Rwanda plan would see some asylum seekers sent to the African country for processing.
Immigration has become a key campaign battleground ahead of the election and could cause a headache for Rishi Sunak.
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An inflatable dinghy carrying migrants passes a French navy vessel as it heads towards England in the English Channel (Picture: Reuters)
The prime minister had pledged to ‘stop the boats’ altogether, describing his Rwanda plan as an ‘indispensable deterrent’.
But he announced this week that no planes will take off before the General Election on July 4.
Labour has committed to scrapping the programme altogether.
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A group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, onboard the RNLI Dover Lifeboat following a small boat incident in the Channel (Picture: PA)
A Home Office spokesperson said: ‘The unacceptable number of people who continue to cross the Channel demonstrates exactly why we must get flights to Rwanda off the ground as soon as possible.
‘We continue to work closely with French police who are facing increasing violence and disruption on their beaches as they work tirelessly to prevent these dangerous, illegal and unnecessary journeys. Last year they stopped 26,000 people from reaching our shores.
‘We remain committed to building on the successes that saw arrivals drop by more than a third last year, including tougher legislation and agreements with international partners, in order to save lives and stop the boats.’
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