Channel crossings increase by six times in October despite Priti Patel's assurances
08:39, 02 November 2021
updated: 13:37, 02 November 2021
The number of asylum seekers crossing the Channel has increased sixfold compared to this time last year, latest figures have revealed.
Statistics show that 2,669 people attempted to reach UK shores last month compared to just 475 during the same period in 2020, reports The Times.
This comes despite repeated assurances from Priti Patel's Home Office that such dangerous journeys orchestrated by criminal gangs would be made "unviable".
The government has also given the French £54 million to tackle the problem.
In all, almost 20,000 people have made the perilous journey in 2021, more than twice the number documented across the whole of last year.
Modelling by The Times shows that number will hit 22,000 by the end of 2021, more than triple 2020's total.
And officials also say French patrols have intercepted 15,000 crossings over the last 10 months.
This comes after police received reports of a suspected crossing at Louisa Bay in Broadstairs as a boat and lifejackets were found abandoned in the area on October 18.
Two weeks before, 1,500 asylum seekers were discovered attempting to make their way to the UK over the space of three days.
A Kurdish-Iranian family, including small children, died when their boat sank off the French coast 12 months ago.
And in August a 27-year-old man from Eritrea died after he and four others jumped overboard as their boat started to sink.
It has also been revealed that several unaccompanied children have gone missing from a Folkestone hotel in which they had been placed.
