Record 45,000 migrants made Channel crossing to UK last year

LONDON: More than 45,000 migrants crossed the Channel to the UK from mainland Europe in 2022, surpassing the previous year´s record by more than 17,000, according to government figures released on Sunday.

The issue has become a huge political problem for the Conservative government, which has promised to bring down illegal immigration and break the smuggling gangs that carry out the crossings.

In total, 45,756 people made the dangerous small-boat crossing of one of the world´s busiest shipping lanes last year, compared with 28,526 in 2021. Four people died last month when a small boat packed with migrants capsized in freezing temperatures in the Channel.

A fishing boat in the area plucked 43 people from the frigid waters. That incident occurred just over a year after at least 27 people drowned when their dinghy capsized, a disaster that sparked soul-searching on both sides of the Channel.

2022 also saw the highest ever single-day total of migrants making the crossing, with 1,295 making the journey on August 22.French police have busted a major people-smuggling ring that has been sending migrants to Britain in dinghies, with more than a dozen boats and 700 life jackets seized in a raid, French authorities said.

The ring was run by Iraqi Kurdish migrants and had a logistics hub in Lille, a northern French city about 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the northern Channel beaches around Calais that are used for crossings.

Three Iraqi men have been charged, along with three French suspects after their arrest on Monday. Police discovered “a real factory supplying nautical equipment” in Lille, the head of French anti-migration agency Ocriest, Xavier Delrieu, told AFP.

In what was their biggest ever seizure of equipment, they found 13 inflatable boats, 14 outboard engines, 700 life jackets, 100 pumps and 700 liters of fuel, Delrieu said. The group is suspected of organizing 80 Channel crossings over the summer, of which 50 succeeded, with the smugglers netting around 80,000 euros ($80,000) for each one.