English Channel migrant crossings reach daily high for 2021

French authorities stopped 166 people reaching British waters

Nine small boats carrying 209 migrants have crossed the English Channel - the highest number in a single day this year.

The Home Office said a further 166 people were prevented from crossing by French authorities.

More than 1,850 people have reached the UK by boat in 2021.

The department said it was working to "break the business model of people smugglers who put lives at risk by facilitating dangerous journeys".

By the same point in 2020, fewer than 1,000 people had made the crossing, but numbers rose dramatically later in the year as the pandemic reduced the number of cross-Channel ferries.

More than 8,400 people reached the UK in small boats in 2020.

The government vowed to make the journey "unviable" and is planning to make it more difficult for asylum seekers who arrive in the UK via illegal means to remain in the UK.

Under the plans, they will no longer have the same entitlements as those who arrive legally.

Campaigners say the proposals would create an unfair system and would not address people smuggling.

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