Small boat crossings to the UK have risen sharply, with numbers already significantly ahead of the same point in previous years, data shows.
According to the latest Home Office data, 174 migrants were picked up on three small boats in the Channel on Saturday.
So far this year, 4,131 people have arrived in Britain by small boats crossing the waterway. February was relatively slow, with migrants known to have the perilous journey across the English Channel on only eight days, but there have been crossings on every day so far this month.
The total is 23 per cent higher than the same period last year (3,358) and is 33 per cent up on 2023 (3,150). Numbers crossing have risen 87 per cent compared with 2022 (2,212).
The highest number arriving in one day this year so far stands at 592 people, who crossed the Channel in 11 boats on March 2. A total of 1,378 people arrived after crossing the Channel in the first five days of the month.
Ministers are facing questions after it emerged that one of those who recently crossed to the UK was a controversial Palestinian social media influencer, Mossab Al Qassass, also known as Abu Wadei, who has called for the slaughter of all Jews and posed with AK-47s. He has now been arrested by immigration enforcement officers for entering the UK illegally.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has promised to “smash the gangs” of people smugglers who migrants pay thousands to take them to the UK, ditching the Conservative "deterrent" plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda.
The opposition Conservative Party’s shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: “Labour has lost control of our borders. Illegal immigrants crossing the channel up 28 per cent since the general election in July. Labour needs to urgently implement a removals deterrent so those arriving are rapidly removed. Then the illegal immigrants will stop crossing in the first place.”
Mr Philp said he would be raising the arrival of Wadei with the Home Office, which he said “needs to identify where this despicable individual is and, frankly, remove him from the country back to Palestine immediately”.
"He clearly has no place in the United Kingdom and potentially poses a threat to our fellow citizens," he added. "This just illustrates why it is so important to get control of our borders and to stop these boat crossings."
Mr Al Qassass, who is believed to be in his mid-30s and from the city of Khan Younis in Gaza, is thought to have been one of the 235 migrants picked up on four small boats in the Channel on Thursday morning.
He has a large following on social media, where his TikTok videos attract up to 2.5 million views. He charted his journey from Gaza on the social media channel, said the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism (CAS), which first flagged the videos.
The CAS said Mr Al Qassass left Gaza before the October 7 Hamas-led attacks in 2023 and, according to videos they have found, arrived in Greece in July 2023. He posted footage of his dinghy being approached by the Border Force vessel.
He appears to have been a prominent member of the so-called Tyre-Burning Unit, a militant group of Palestinian extremists who before the outbreak of Israel-Hamas war are believed to have regularly hurled fire bombs and rocks at Israeli forces stationed at the border with Gaza.
The CAS said he “must not be permitted to be at large in this country” and called for officials to “consider that this man poses a threat to public security". The body is "asking the Home Office for urgent assurances that he is in secure custody pending further investigation”.
"The fact is that he has brazenly posted not only these views, but also his involvement in a Hamas-endorsed unit in Gaza on social media accounts with hundreds of thousands of followers.
"It is alarming in the extreme that he does not appear to have attracted the attention of the authorities in numerous European countries and has now arrived in the UK with relative ease, having openly posted videos on each stop of his journey to the UK."
The Home Office would not comment on individual cases but said the “British public can be reassured that we take all steps necessary at all times to protect the nation's security".
The department said the UK was working with France in a bid to disrupt organised immigration crime, which included Martin Hewitt, head of Border Security Command, signing an agreement with his French counterpart Patrick Stefanini last week to bolster efforts to increase deportations and prevent Channel crossings.
“We all want to end dangerous small boat crossings, which threaten lives and undermine our border security,” said a representative. “The people-smuggling gangs do not care if the vulnerable people they exploit live or die, as long as they pay. We will stop at nothing to dismantle their business models and bring them to justice.”
Both the Labour government and the Conservative opposition have vowed to reduce the number of migrants coming to the UK, both legally and illegally.
The Conservatives have proposed amendments to the legislation, which would mean migrants will have to earn more to qualify for a work visa and will not be able to bring partners to the UK unless they have been married for two years.
The party has suggested migrants will have to earn £38,700 ($46,010) to secure permission to live and work in the UK. The Tories said this would ensure they are "self-sufficient and do not rely on the state".
The government has proposed that foreign criminals could be made to wear electronic tags and subject to night-time curfews while the government is waiting to deport them, under new plans set to be unveiled by ministers.
An amendment to the Border Security Asylum and Immigration Bill will mean tougher restrictions can be put on people who have committed a crime or have been deemed a threat to the public, but cannot yet be removed.
