LONDON: The number of migrants arriving in Britain by crossing the Channel on boats hit a record in the first half of 2024, but regular immigration by health workers and students fell, official data showed Thursday.
The UK processed 13,489 so-called small boat migrants in the six months, an 18 percent jump year-on-year and the highest figure ever for that period, according to the interior ministry statistics.
That compared to 11,433 migrants making the perilous journey — across one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes — from January to June in 2023.
The figures are a reminder of the challenge facing the UK’s new Labour government as it tries to reduce the cross-Channel arrivals amid public unease over the issue.
The data came in the wake of more than a week of disorder — dubbed anti-immigration riots — across England and in Northern Ireland which saw some rampaging mobs chant “stop the boats.”
The phrase was an unfulfilled pledge from Conservative former premier Rishi Sunak, who lost last month’s general election to Labour’s Keir Starmer.
The disturbances, which hit more than a dozen English towns and cities, followed a deadly knife attack on a group of children, an attack wrongly blamed on a Muslim asylum seeker.
However, the number of arrivals of health sector and other workers as well as students and their dependents dropped in the most recent quarter, and year to June.
It coincided with tighter visa regulations announced by Sunak’s government last December and imposed in April aimed at lowering record immigration levels.
Visas issued for health and care workers, a sector suffering from staffing shortfalls, fell by four-fifths from April to June compared to the same period in 2023.
Student visas granted reduced 13 percent in the year to June, and those issued to students’ dependants dropped 81 percent year-on-year in the first half of 2024.
Various industry and higher education lobby groups have voiced concerns at the new restrictions, which prevented some dependents from coming to the UK and hiked minimum salary requirements for some workers.
On Channel crossings, the latest figures showed 81 percent of arrivals by people without legal permission to enter the UK in the year to June were on small boats from mainland Europe.
UK officials began counting these “irregular” arrivals in 2018, when there were just 11 in the first half of the year.
Since then, more than 133,000 have arrived — 70 percent of them men and around a fifth under-18s, according to the data.
Afghans comprised 18 percent of the arrivals in the year to June — the single largest nationality cohort — followed by Iranians (13 percent), Vietnamese (10 percent), Turkish (10 percent) and Syrians (nine percent).
The new statistics revealed the average numbers in each boat had increased again, from 10 in the year ending June 2019, 44 in the year ending June 2023 to 51 people in the latest corresponding period.
UK authorities have repeatedly warned that smuggling gangs organizing the crossings are adapting their methods, using bigger boats and packing more people in.
Starmer has vowed to “smash the gangs” as the centerpiece of his strategy to tackle the issue, after scrapping contentious Conservative plans to deport thousands of migrants to Rwanda.
UK sees record Channel migrant arrivals in 2024 as regular immigration falls
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UK sees record Channel migrant arrivals in 2024 as regular immigration falls
- The figures are a reminder of the challenge facing the UK’s new Labour government as it tries to reduce the cross-Channel arrivals amid public unease over the issue
Britain’s crime minister has bag stolen at police conference
- In her speech, Diana Johnson said Britain had been ‘gripped by an epidemic of anti-social behavior, theft and shoplifting’
- Warwickshire Police said a 56-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of burglary and released on bail in connection to the incident
The incident occurred when Diana Johnson attended the Police Superintendents’ Association conference in central England on Tuesday where one senior officer told her in a speech that the criminal justice system was broken.
The official said Johnson had her bag stolen at the conference, but no security risk had been identified. In her speech, Johnson said Britain had been “gripped by an epidemic of anti-social behavior, theft and shoplifting.”
The Home Office, or interior ministry, declined to comment.
Warwickshire Police said a 56-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of burglary and released on bail in connection to the incident.
Britain has been hit by an increase in thefts and shoplifting in recent years. While overall crime has generally been decreasing, the number of thefts from individuals of items like bags and mobile phones rose by 40 percent in the year ending March, according to the Office for National Statistics.
This has contributed to public support for the police falling to record lows. A poll by YouGov earlier this year found more than half of the public do not trust the police to solve crimes, and over a third said they have no faith in the police to maintain law and order.
In her speech, Johnson announced plans to give more police officers training to tackle anti-social behavior after a “decade of decline.”
“Too many town centers and high streets across the country have been gripped by an epidemic of anti-social behavior, theft and shoplifting which is corroding our communities and cannot be allowed to continue,” she said.
Russian missile hit an Egypt-bound wheat cargo ship in Black Sea: Zelensky
- “Russia launched a strike on an ordinary civilian vessel in the Black Sea right after it left Ukrainian territorial waters,” Zelensky said
- There were no casualties from the attack, Zelensky added, urging global condemnation after the strike
KYIV: A Russian missile on Thursday morning hit an Egypt-bound cargo ship in the Black Sea carrying wheat, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
The Black Sea is a crucial trading route for Ukraine, one of the world’s largest agricultural producers and exporters, but was turned into a naval battleground when Russia invaded Ukraine.
“Russian missile against a wheat cargo bound for Egypt ... Russia launched a strike on an ordinary civilian vessel in the Black Sea right after it left Ukrainian territorial waters,” Zelensky said in a post on social media.
There were no casualties from the attack, Zelensky added, urging global condemnation after the strike.
“Domestic stability and normal life in dozens of countries around the world are dependent on the normal and unhindered operation of our food expert corridor,” he said.
Moscow last year pulled out of a UN-brokered deal guaranteeing safe passage for Ukraine’s agricultural exports on the Black Sea, but Kyiv has carved out a maritime corridor allowing trade to continue.
Over 5,000 ships have sailed through the grain corridor since it was created, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said Wednesday.
Global food prices shot up when Russia invaded Ukraine amid fears conflict in the Black Sea would hobble global food supplies.
Sweden wants to pay immigrants up to $34,000 to return: govt
- As of 2026, immigrants who voluntarily return to their home countries would be eligible to receive up to $34,000
STOCKHOLM: Sweden's government said Thursday it would drastically increase grants for immigrants who choose to leave the country, in order to encourage more migrants to make the choice.
As of 2026, immigrants who voluntarily return to their home countries would be eligible to receive up to 350,000 Swedish kronor ($34,000), up from the current 10,000 kronor, the right-wing government, which is propped up by the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats, said in a statement.
Polish FM sees limit on influencing Iran after Russia missiles transfer
- “The trouble for Poland is that Iran is already under such severe sanctions that there is not that much more that we can do,” Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said
- “I’m disappointed, because we have a new president of Iran“
WARSAW: Poland’s foreign minister conceded Thursday that there were limits on how to influence Iran, already under heavy sanctions, after Tehran allegedly shipped short-range missiles to Russia to attack Ukraine.
Western powers this week imposed new sanctions targeting Iran’s aviation sector, including state carrier Iran Air, and Ukraine warned it may cut off relations with Tehran.
“The trouble for Poland is that Iran is already under such severe sanctions that there is not that much more that we can do,” Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said when asked if Poland, a staunch backer of Ukraine, would also sever ties.
He was speaking at a joint news conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who on Tuesday said that Russia could start firing the Iranian missiles into Ukraine within weeks.
Western powers had warned Iran against the move, and Sikorski noted that it came shortly after Iranians elected President Masoud Pezeshkian, seen as a reformist within the cleric-run state.
“I’m disappointed, because we have a new president of Iran. He’s supposedly not as aggressive as the previous butcher of Tehran,” Sikorski said.
“But the policy of sending missiles and drones to use against Ukraine and also using similar equipment against Israel seems to be continuing.”
Poland enjoys a long history with Iran, which took in thousands of Polish civilians during World War II.
But as a close US ally, it has joined pressure campaigns against Iran, including agreeing to host a 2019 conference encouraged by then president Donald Trump that pressured Tehran.
Russia hit Red Cross vehicles in east Ukraine, killed 3: Zelensky
- “Today, the occupier attacked the vehicles of the International Committee of the Red Cross humanitarian mission in Donetsk region,” Zelensky said
- The attack took place in the village of Virolyubivka
KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said a Russian attack on vehicles of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Thursday in his country’s east had killed three people.
“Today, the occupier attacked the vehicles of the International Committee of the Red Cross humanitarian mission in Donetsk region,” Zelensky said.
Artillery shelling killed three Ukrainian citizens working for the ICRC and wounded another two, the Ukrainian parliamentary commissioner for human rights Dmytro Lubinets said.
The attack took place in the village of Virolyubivka, a dozen of kilometers away from the front line in Donetsk.
There was no immediate comment from Russia, which routinely says it only hits military targets.
The UN Humanitarian mission to Ukraine said 50 workers were killed or injured in Ukraine in 2023, including 11 killed in the line of duty.
“Since the beginning of the year, this repeated pattern of attacks appears to have intensified,” the UN humanitarian coordinator Denise Brown said in a statement in February.
