LONDON, June 01 – The UK witnessed a record single-day surge in Channel crossings on Saturday, with 1,194 migrants arriving aboard 18 small boats, prompting Defence Secretary John Healey to declare Britain has “lost control of its borders.”
The figure, confirmed by the Home Office, marks the highest daily total this year and surpasses the previous 2024 record of 825 set earlier in May. It brings the cumulative number of crossings for the year to 14,811 – a 42% increase compared to the same period last year and the highest ever recorded for the first five months of any year.
Describing the scenes as “shocking,” Healey attributed the crisis to people-smugglers operating with apparent impunity on French shores, loading migrants “like a taxi.” He blamed France for failing to implement an agreed rule change allowing police to intercept boats in shallow waters.
“Truth is, Britain’s lost control of its borders over the last five years, and the last government last year left an asylum system in chaos and record levels of immigration,” Healey stated during an interview on Sky News’ Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips. “We saw the smugglers launching elsewhere and coming around like a taxi to pick them up.”
Healey acknowledged France’s cooperation was now at the “level needed” but stressed urgency: “Our concentration now is to push them to get that [rule change] into operation so they can intercept these smugglers and stop these people in the boats, not just on the shore.”
The French maritime prefecture reported intercepting only 184 migrants (approximately 15% of attempted crossings) on Saturday. UK authorities, including Border Force vessels and lifeboats, were overwhelmed during the rescues, requiring assistance from fishing boats for separate incidents involving a yacht and a kayak in distress.
Videos circulating on social media showed migrants packed onto dinghies during the crossings. The surge comes less than three weeks after the Labour government unveiled plans to reduce net migration and tighten visa requirements. It also precedes a critical Scottish by-election on Thursday where immigration is a key issue.
The Conservative opposition labelled Saturday a “day of shame for Labour,” claiming Britain had been “reduced to chaos on the high seas” with Border Force at “breaking point.”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has pledged to “smash the gangs” through enhanced international cooperation, a new Border Security Command, and granting counter-terrorism style powers to agencies. However, the record crossings, fueled partly by unseasonably calm weather, pose a significant challenge to this commitment.
