Migrants crossing Channel to UK in 2024 soar by 25 percent

Inflatable dinghies used by migrants on previous attempted crossings of the English Channel are seen at the port of Dover, England. (AFP)
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Updated 01 January 2025
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Migrants crossing Channel to UK in 2024 soar by 25 percent

  • Immigration, both irregular and regular, was a major issue at July’s general election which brought Labour to power

LONDON: The number of irregular migrants arriving in Britain on small boats soared in 2024, data showed Wednesday, piling pressure on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to stem the dangerous Channel crossings.

Immigration, both irregular and regular, was a major issue at July’s general election, which brought Labour to power but also saw a breakthrough for Nigel Farage’s hard-right Reform UK party.

Some 36,816 people were detected in the Channel last year, a 25 percent increase from the 29,437 who arrived in 2023, provisional figures from the interior ministry showed.

The 2024 total, however, was still well below the record 45,774 undocumented migrants who arrived on the UK’s shores in flimsy inflatable boats in 2022.

At least 76 deaths were recorded in about 20 accidents last year, making it the deadliest year for migrants who are taking ever greater risks to evade Britain’s border control.

According to French officials, at least 5,800 people were rescued at sea last year and authorities prevented more than 870 attempted crossings.

Starmer has pledged to crack down on the crossings after his election win returned Labour to government after 14 years in opposition. Upon entering office, he scrapped the previous Conservative government’s controversial scheme to send irregular migrants to Rwanda, branding it a “gimmick.”

Instead, he has promised to “smash the gangs” of people traffickers running the crossings and has signed a number of agreements with foreign countries to co-operate on law enforcement.

He has described the smuggling networks as a “global security threat similar to terrorism.”

The latest figures mean last year had the second highest number of annual arrivals since data on the crossings began to be collected in 2018. More than 150,000 people have arrived by boat in the last seven years in total.

In the first nine months of last year, Afghan migrants accounted for the single largest group of arrivals, making up 17 percent of the total. People from Vietnam, Iran and Syria were the next largest groups.

Vietnamese migrants appeared to fuel the surge in crossings in 2024. They made up just 5 percent of arrivals in 2023, well below the January-September 2024 figure of 13 percent.

“It’s often not possible to pin down a specific reason,” for why the numbers fluctuate, Madeleine Sumption, director of the Migration Observatory at Oxford University told AFP.

“The reason that brought numbers a bit higher this year is partly there was some increase in the first half of the year, and then we’ve seen this kind of sustained increase from October, November, December, which is usually when the numbers start to settle down because the weather’s not as good.”

More than 3,200 arrived in December alone, including several hundred over Christmas.

Starmer has also set up a new Border Security Command and strengthened cooperation with European partners, including Europol.

Britain has signed joint action plans with Germany and Iraq aimed at tackling the smuggling gangs. They build on earlier agreements signed under the previous Conservative government, including with France and Albania.

Starmer’s government also points to an increase in the return of irregular migrants to their countries of origin.

Some 29,000 people were returned between January and early December, a quarter more than in 2023, and a level not seen since 2017, according to the Migration Observatory.

“In terms of what the current government is doing, it’s too early to tell you know whether their approach is having an impact on the numbers,” said Sumption.

Starmer is also under pressure to reduce legal migration as he tries to fend off growing support for arch-Euroskeptic Farage’s hard-right Reform UK, which won roughly four million votes during the July 4 poll — an unprecedented haul for a far-right party.

Net legal migration is running at historically high levels, and was estimated at 728,000 for the year to June 2024.

The surge has come despite Britons being told during the 2016 Brexit referendum that leaving the European Union would allow the country to “take back control” of its borders.


29 pupils taking high school exams killed in C.Africa crush

Updated 4 sec ago
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29 pupils taking high school exams killed in C.Africa crush

In the ensuing panic, supervisors and students tried to flee, some jumping from the first floor of the school
“I would like to express my solidarity and compassion to the parents of the deceased candidates, to the educational staff, to the students,” Touadera said

BANGUI: Twenty-nine students taking their high school exams in the Central African Republic died in a stampede sparked by an exploding power transformer, the health ministry told AFP Thursday.

Just over 5,300 students were sitting the second day of the baccalaureate exams at the time of the explosion early Wednesday afternoon in Bangui, the capital of the deeply poor nation.

In the ensuing panic, supervisors and students tried to flee, some jumping from the first floor of the school.

The injured were transported by ambulance, on the back of pickup trucks or by motorbike taxi, AFP journalists saw.

“I would like to express my solidarity and compassion to the parents of the deceased candidates, to the educational staff, to the students,” President Faustin Archange Touadera said in a video published on his party’s Facebook page.

Touadera, who is attending a summit of the Gavi vaccine alliance in Brussels, also announced three days of national mourning.

According to a document circulating on social media and authenticated by the health ministry, 29 deaths were registered by hospitals in the city.

“The hospital was overwhelmed by people to the point of obstructing caregivers and ambulances, a health ministry source stated.

UN peacekeepers, police and other security were seen around the Barthelemy Boganda high school and hospitals.

Education Minister Aurelien-Simplice Kongbelet-Zingas said in a statement Wednesday that “measures will be taken quickly to shed light on the circumstances of this incident.”

The minister added that a further statement would follow regarding selection of a date for the students to resume their exams program.

The Republican Bloc for the Defense of the Constitution (BRDC), a coalition of opposition parties, condemned what it termed “the irresponsibility of the authorities in place, who have failed in their duty to ensure the safety of students and school infrastructure.”

The CAR is among the poorest countries in the world and, since independence from France in 1960, has endured a succession of coups, authoritarian rulers and civil wars.

The latest civil war started more than a decade ago. The government has secured the main cities and violence has subsided in recent years.

But fighting occasionally erupts in remote regions between rebels and the national army, which is backed by Wagner mercenaries and Rwandan troops.

Municipal, legislative, and presidential elections are scheduled for August and December of this year but UN experts are calling for urgent institutional reform of the electoral authority before the polls and for “transparent internal governance,” as tensions between the government and the opposition intensify.

Kremlin says no date yet for next round of Ukraine peace talks

Updated 6 min 9 sec ago
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Kremlin says no date yet for next round of Ukraine peace talks

  • Peskov said Russia was in favor of continued US efforts to mediate
  • They have made no progress toward a ceasefire

MOSCOW: The Kremlin said on Thursday there was no progress yet toward setting a date for the next round of peace talks with Ukraine, Interfax news agency reported.

Another agency, TASS, quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying Russia was in favor of continued US efforts to mediate.

Resuming negotiations after a gap of more than three years, Russia and Ukraine held face-to-face talks in Istanbul on May 16 and June 2 that led to a series of prisoner exchanges and the return of the bodies of dead soldiers.

But they have made no progress toward a ceasefire which Ukraine, with Western backing, has been pressing for.


16 dead, thousands of businesses destroyed after Kenya protests

Updated 27 min 45 sec ago
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16 dead, thousands of businesses destroyed after Kenya protests

  • The marches had been called to mark one year since anti-tax demonstrations
  • “What unfolded yesterday was not a protest. It was terrorism disguised as dissent,” Kipchumba Murkomen, interior cabinet secretary, said

NAIROBI: At least 16 people died in protests across Kenya on Wednesday, Amnesty International said Thursday, as businesses and residents were left to clean up the devastation in the capital and beyond.

The marches had been called to mark one year since anti-tax demonstrations that peaked when a huge crowd stormed parliament and dozens were killed by security forces.

The anniversary marches began peacefully Wednesday but descended into chaos as young men held running battles with police, lit fires, and ripped up pavements to use as projectiles.

“What unfolded yesterday was not a protest. It was terrorism disguised as dissent,” Kipchumba Murkomen, interior cabinet secretary, said in a televised speech.

“We condemn the criminal anarchists who in the name of peaceful demonstrations unleashed a wave of violence, looting, sexual assault and destruction upon our people,” he added.

In Nairobi’s business district, the epicenter of the unrest, AFP journalists found entire shopping centers and thousands of businesses destroyed, many still smoldering.

At least two banks had been broken into, while businesses ranging from supermarkets to small electronics and clothing stores were reduced to ashes or ransacked by looters.

“When we came we found the whole premise burnt down,” said Raphael Omondi, 36, owner of a print shop, adding that he had lost machines worth $150,000.

“There were guys stealing, and after stealing they set the whole premises on fire... If this is what protest is, it is not worth it.”

“They looted everything... I do not know where to start,” said Maureen Chepkemoi, 32, owner of a perfume store.

“To protest is not bad but why are you coming to protest inside my shop? It is wicked,” she added.

Several business owners told AFP that looting had started in the afternoon after the government ordered TV and radio stations to stop broadcasting live images of the protests.

Amnesty International’s Kenya director Irungu Houghton said the death toll had risen to 16.

Rights group Vocal Africa, which was documenting the deaths and helping affected families at a Nairobi morgue, said at least four bodies had been brought there so far.

“All of them had signs of gunshots, so we suspect they all died of gunshot wounds,” its head Hussein Khalid told AFP.

“We condemn this excessive use of force,” he said. “We believe that the police could have handled themselves with restraint.”

“You come out to protest police killings, and they kill even more.”

A coalition of rights groups had earlier said at least 400 people were wounded, with 83 in serious condition in hospital. It recorded protests in 23 counties around Kenya.

Emergency responders reported multiple gunshot wounds, and there were unconfirmed local media reports that police had opened fire on protesters, particularly in towns outside the capital.

There is deep resentment against President William Ruto, who came to power in 2022 promising rapid economic progress.

Many are disillusioned by continued economic stagnation, corruption and high taxes, as well as police brutality after a teacher was killed in custody earlier this month.


Vehicle hits pedestrians near school in Beijing: Chinese police

Updated 44 min ago
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Vehicle hits pedestrians near school in Beijing: Chinese police

  • A grey SUV wedged against a tree as several people and clothing were seen in the road
  • “On June 26, 2025, at around 13:00, a traffic accident occurred near the intersection of Yucai Road and Dongmen Street in Miyun district,” local police wrote

BEIJING: A vehicle crashed into pedestrians in an “accident” near a school in Beijing on Thursday, Chinese police said, with footage shared online appearing to show young people lying injured in the street.

Videos geolocated by AFP to an intersection in Miyun district in the northeast of the capital showed a grey SUV wedged against a tree as several people and clothing were seen in the road.

In one clip a bloodied young person was seen being given first aid by somebody in white overalls.

“On June 26, 2025, at around 13:00, a traffic accident occurred near the intersection of Yucai Road and Dongmen Street in Miyun district,” local police wrote in an online statement.

A 35-year-old man surnamed Han “collided” with people “due to an improper operation,” it said, adding those injured were taken to hospital.

It did not give the number of injured.

“The accident is under further investigation,” the statement said.

China has seen a string of mass casualty incidents — from stabbings to car attacks — challenging its reputation for good public security.

Last year a man who plowed his car into a crowd of mostly school children in central China was handed a suspended death sentence with a two-year reprieve.

In November 2024 the attacker named as Huang Wen repeatedly rammed his car into a crowd outside a primary school in Hunan province.

When the vehicle malfunctioned and stopped, Huang got out and attacked bystanders with a weapon before being apprehended.

Thirty people, including 18 pupils, sustained minor injuries.

Some analysts have linked the incidents to growing anger and desperation at the country’s slowing economy and a sense that society is becoming more stratified.

In November last year, a man killed 35 people and wounded more than 40 when he rammed his car into a crowd in the southern city of Zhuhai, the country’s deadliest attack in a decade.

And in the same month, eight people were killed and 17 wounded in a knife attack at a vocational school in the eastern Chinese city of Yixing.


Lavrov says NATO spending increase won’t significantly affect Russia’s security

Updated 26 June 2025
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Lavrov says NATO spending increase won’t significantly affect Russia’s security

  • NATO allies on Wednesday agreed to raise their collective spending goal to 5% of GDP over the next decade

MOSCOW: NATO’s decision to increase defense spending will not significantly affect Russia’s security, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday.

NATO allies on Wednesday agreed to raise their collective spending goal to 5 percent of gross domestic product over the next decade, citing what they called the long-term threat posed by Russia and the need to strengthen civil and military resilience.

“As for the impact of this 5 percent goal on our security, I don’t think it will be significant,” Lavrov told a press conference.

“We know what goals we are pursuing, we don’t hide them, we openly announce them, they are absolutely legal from the point of view of any interpretation of the principles of the UN Charter and international law, and we know by what means we will always ensure these goals.”

NATO adopted the higher spending target in response to pressure from US President Donald Trump for European members to pull their weight, and also to European fears that Russia poses a growing threat to their security following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Russia, which is spending more than 40 percent of this year’s budget on defense and security, denies any intention to attack a NATO state.

The Kremlin accused the alliance this week of portraying Russia as a “fiend of hell” in order to justify its “rampant militarization.”