The Number Of Migrants Crossing The Channel Has Hit A New Milestone. Is It Time To Make It Easier To Reach The UK?

Labour is bracing for illegal boat crossings to reach 50,000 since they were elected this week.Labour has been accused of creating a “crisis over nothing” as the number of small boat crossings since the last election to reached 50,000.Home Office data confirmed that 474 asylum seekers made the perilous crossing yesterday, taking the total since Keir Starmer became prime minister 13 months ago to 50,271.According to the Daily Express, that is quicker than under Tory PMs Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak.The Tories have accused the government of “surrendering our borders” and overseeing the “worst illegal immigration crisis in our history”.The number of small boat crossings are a major source of embarrassment for Labour, which pledged during last year’s general election to “smash the people-smuggling gangs” responsible.And even government minister Jacqui Smith, who served as the home secretary under Gordon Brown, told BBC Breakfast this morning that number pf crossings under Labour was “unacceptable”.But independent migration policy researcher Zoe Gardner, told HuffPost UK the government is focusing on the wrong issue.She said Labour should instead increase the number of legal immigration routes to the UK, thereby taking away the need for asylum seekers to risk their lives in the English Channel.She said: “50,000 people since Labour came to power corresponds to about 5 or 6% of all immigration during that period.“If it wasn’t coming on boats but through safe, regulated routes instead these numbers would not even register.“By refusing to offer safe routes, the government has created a crisis out of nothing at all.”Net migration in 2024 was 431,000 – much lower than the historical high of 906,000 recorded in 2023, but still a number which dwarves how many arrived people arrived in small boats during the same period (37,000).The government has often been criticised over its lack of safe and legal routes for people to claim asylum in the UK.And, as human rights organisation Amnesty International explained, a “safe and legal route” means a journey formally approved by the government.But, “the government allows nobody to make a claim for asylum in the UK unless they are physically present in the UK” and “it is impossible to come to the UK for the purpose of seeking asylum in any way permitted by the government’s immigration rules”.The only exceptions apply to people from Ukraine and someone who has family in the UK or has a partner or child who has been granted asylum in Britain.There is also a visa route for some Afghans who have worked for the government.As Amnesty International noted on its website: “Seeking asylum from persecution is lawful – refugees don’t need anyone’s permission to do so.”It concluded: “It is a government choice to require refugees wishing to seek asylum in the UK to rely on dangerous journeys and people smugglers.”The government is desperate to bring the number of small boat crossings down and prove to voters it is dealing with the migration crisis.It announced a new “one in, one out” returns scheme with France last week, which will allow the UK to return one person to France who entered the Britain via so-called “illegal” means.The UK then has to accept someone with a greater claim to asylum in Britain from France.The first returns are expected to take place in the coming weeks, but the impact will likely be very small initially as the scheme is tested.Related...Almost Half Of Brits Are Getting An Essential Fact About UK Immigration WrongYvette Cooper Delivers Brutal Commons Slapdown To Chris Philp Over The Tories' Immigration Failures'A Horrific Moral Failure': Campaigner Slams Labour And Tories Over Illegal Immigration

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