3 days Ago By Flora Thompson
More than 1,000 migrants arrived in the UK after crossing the Channel over the weekend as eight people died trying to make the journey. Channel crossings continued the day after news of the deaths emerged, with the Home Office recording 1,093 arrivals in two days as the tragedy unfolded. Some 292 people made the journey on Sunday in six boats after 801 piled into 14 boats and arrived in the UK on Saturday, figures show.
This takes the provisional total for the year so far to 23,533, with nearly 10,000 Channel crossings recorded (9,959) since Labour won the general election, according to PA news agency analysis of government data. Saturday’s arrivals – which came after a five-day hiatus in Channel activity – saw the second highest daily total in 2024 so far after 882 people made the journey on June 18. The French coastguard said 53 migrants were on board a boat which crashed into rocks overnight on Saturday into Sunday off the coast of Ambleteuse in the Pas-de-Calais region of northern France.
Most of the group were rescued, with six people including a 10-month-old baby who had hypothermia taken to hospital, but eight men died. More than 200 people were rescued from the Channel in a 24-hour period between Friday to Saturday, according to the French coastguard. It comes less than two weeks after another boat was ripped apart as it made its way across the Channel, claiming the lives of 12 people including a pregnant woman and six children.
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