The number of small-boat migrants reaching Britain since Labour came to power is up by just over a quarter, after more than 600 arrived over the weekend.
Home Office figures showed 592 crossed the Channel on Sunday – the highest daily total since mid-December. It followed 68 on Saturday.
It means 25,958 migrants have made it to Britain since the election, up 26 per cent on the equivalent period in 2023-24.
One of Labour’s first acts in office was scrapping the Tories’ Rwanda asylum deal, which was designed to deter migrants from risking their lives in the Channel. The Government has instead placed an emphasis on law-enforcement measures against human-trafficking gangs.
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said: ‘Labour made a catastrophic mistake by cancelling Rwanda before it even started.’
Labour’s handling of the Rwanda deportation scheme descended into farce last night as the east African nation demanded a further £50million from the British taxpayer.
Relations between the two countries turned sour as Kigali accused Lord Collins, the minister for Africa, of making ‘inflammatory and irresponsible’ comments concerning its ongoing conflict with a neighbouring African nation. He suggested Rwanda was linked with an attack on a church in the Democratic Republic of Congo by Islamic State-related group ADF.
The Rwandan government said it breached the trust between the two countries and as a result it would be seeking £50 million which the UK was ‘legally bound’ to pay, despite the scheme’s cancellation.
A UK Government spokesman disputed the claim, saying diplomatic agreements already signed meant Rwanda had ‘waived any additional payment’.
Sunday’s mass arrival aboard 11 dinghies was an unusually high total for so early in the year, with similar peaks not seen until mid-April or May in previous years.
Asked about Sunday’s arrivals, a Home Office source said ‘it was always likely that the first day of sunshine and calm seas would bring a surge’, adding: ‘But after seven years of these crossings we need to get to a position where our border security is no longer dependent on the weather.’
Meanwhile, two child migrants who arrived in the UK across the Channel alone are to return to France to rejoin their Kurdish Turk parents after a landmark legal case.
The Daily Mail first reported in January how the Home Office had launched a legal battle to prevent the parents claiming asylum in the UK using human rights laws.
They had been separated from the boys, aged six and nine, during a small-boat launch last July but the children reached Britain and were placed in foster care in Kent.
The Home Office fought the human rights claim amid fears that inviting the parents into the country would set a dangerous precedent.
Now the High Court has approved a deal to reunite the boys in France amid undertakings from the parents that they will not attempt to again cross the Channel illegally.