A boat packed with migrants crossing the Channel (Image: PA)
Jaw-dropping new figures lay bare the staggering scale of Britain’s asylum crisis as a surge in crossings in the English Channel, with record numbers cramming onto each boat.
Home Office figures show from around 178,845 asylum claims between 2018 and 2025 a huge 44.5% (79,589) were granted refugee status in the UK. Around 29.8% (53,305) were rejected by Whitehall over the same period and a further 18.7% (33,413) were classed as “withdrawn” applications by either the migrant or Home Office. More than 7% (12,538) still have a decision pending from officials, reports GB News.
In the past few weeks new PM Andy Burnham has faced scrutiny over his position on the Channel boats crisis, which has seen new tactics from people smugglers who are trying to pack more migrants into each vessel.
Last week 165 asylum seekers packed into one dinghy to reach the UK, but that record was smashed on Tuesday when 173 mostly men crammed into one craft for the crossing. The migrants had to be rescued and were returned to France after their boat caught fire in the Channel.
The “mega dinghy” that capsized in the English Channel after its engine caught fire has been confirmed as the largest small boat to attempt to cross from France.
French authorities said 173 people were rescued by French vessels, with assistance from two British Border Security Command boats and an RNLI lifeboat. They were taken to Boulogne-sur-Mer, officials added.
This makes it the largest single vessel to attempt to cross the Channel carrying migrants.
The dinghy, which left the beach at Veules-les-Roses, near Dieppe, on Monday night, caught fire in the French search and rescue region on Tuesday morning, the UK’s Maritime and Coastguard Agency said.
A total of 63 migrants were taken to France on the British vessels.
Migrants being rescued in the Channel by the Border Force (Image: PA)
The total number on the boat broke the previous record of 165 who reached the UK late last month in a 13-metre (42ft) boat dubbed a “mega dinghy” by the media. The previous record, in the same month, was 128 people.
The incident came a day after Reform UK proposed using the Royal Navy to return migrants to France or Belgium.
A party spokesman said: “This incident proves that Reform UK’s Operation Fortress plan is workable and that British vessels are able to take Channel migrants back to France without violating maritime or international law as part of a humanitarian mission.
“It also confirms that these crossings on overcrowded, dangerous dinghies are a humanitarian disaster waiting to happen and must be stopped immediately.”
Justice Secretary Alex Norris, who previously served as the border security minister, told reporters: “It’s a very visible reminder both of the dangerous nature of those crossings and of the blind indifference that human traffickers have for life on those boats.
“I’m pleased with the work that we’re doing with France. We are seeing some positive steps forward… but we’ve got to keep doing that work to dissuade people from making those dangerous crossings, and that’s what we’re doing.”
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said: “This is why it’s so wrong that French police stand by and do nothing while the illegal migrant boats embark – lives are being risked.”
Last Wednesday was the busiest day for small boat crossings in the Channel so far this year, with 752 migrants arriving in the UK. But the number of overall arrivals for 2026 has dropped compared with last year.
The provisional total for the year so far is 14,561, 43% lower than the number recorded by this time last year (25,436) and down 15% on the same period in 2024 (16,903).