London: This week, 100,000 migrants, including refugees from Afghanistan and the Middle East, crossed the English Channel into the UK by small boat for the first time since 2018.
The Royal National Lifeboat Institution on Thursday stopped at least nine boats that were carrying 400 people. According to Home Office statistics from Wednesday, a total of 99,960 people had travelled.
Around 8,600 of them are Afghans, with the number of people from that nation in Central Asia significantly rising after the US-led coalition forces withdrew in August 2021 and the Taliban subsequently took control of the government. 898 Afghans are known to have travelled in 2023 so far.
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Albanians make up the largest immigrant group between 2018 and 2022, with at least 12,300 arriving in the UK. They are followed by Afghans, Iranians (at least 5,600), Iraqis (4,400), and Syrians (2,900).
Up until the beginning of 2023, the number of crossings increased steadily, with more opportunities for people traffickers to make money as there was more demand to travel to the UK.
In the late summer, when the weather is more favourable, there are more frequent crossings from France.
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There were 15,072 crossings as of the end of July 2023, down roughly 15% from the same period in 2022, when the annual total came to 45,755.
However, 8,641 people were found crossing in August 2022 alone, marking an increase.
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51 percent of the total number of crossings for the year occurred between the beginning of August and the end of October, and another surge is anticipated this year.
Due to expected good weather and fewer French police and border force personnel on duty on the other side of the Channel as a result of annual leave, the UK Border Force warned that Friday could be a "red day" — a term to denote an increased number of travellers.
In the upcoming weeks, French authorities anticipate losing up to 20% of their staff in the north of the nation, with additional officers being sent to the south to deal with an increase in tourists and vacationers