Home Office data on blocked small boat crossings is unverified… says Home Office

A small boat travel towards the UK from France (Photo: Ben Stansall/AFP)

The Home Office has begun publishing data on the number of small boat crossings blocked by the French police – but the department admits the figures are “unverified” and likely to be erroneous.

The Government has long released data on the number of people who travel across the Channel from France to the UK in small boats.

But last week the Home Office also started publishing figures for the number of “migrants prevented” from reaching the UK.

It shows that 1,032 people were blocked over the past seven days.

But the department’s explanation of the prevention data admits the figures are “estimates” based on an “operational snapshot collected by the French authorities” and that they “have not been verified” at the time of publication.

It goes on to say that the prevention records are “likely to be subject to a relatively high degree of measurement error”, and cannot be compared directly with the number of people crossing the Channel.

The figures for 30 April to 6 May refer to the number of individuals who are “prevented from departing France, or those who return to France”, or to “finds of general maritime equipment”. The Home Office did not define the meaning of the latter.

The department was accused by aid workers of publishing “unreliable” and “misleading” figures on the number of migrants prevented from making the journey to the UK.

A Home Office source defended the use of the prevention data, saying that it was important for the public to see the efforts of the British and French coastguard to prevent the crossings.

They said the data, while unverified, was still valuable because it gave the public a “tangible sense” of daily operations, and would be revised where needed.

The Home Office’s other small boat data can also be revised as more information is made available, but is based on operational data from the UK border and is not presented with the caveat of measurement errors or lack of verification.

Small boat crossings have surged this year, as the Government pushes on with its Rwanda deportation scheme in a bid to deter the journeys.

The data the Home Office collects on small boat crossings – and doesn’t

The Home Office publishes data on irregular migration to the UK, including how many people are detected on small boats and information about who they are, such as age and nationality.

It also shares information on how many seek asylum and how many may be victims of modern slavery, as well as data on how many people are returned to their home countries.

It acknowledges that due to the clandestine nature of small boat arrivals, it can be difficult to assess how many people come to the UK and what they do when they arrive.

The data is based on casework systems which are “undergoing a process of change” so published numbers can be revised in the future, according to the Home Office website.

It also publishes the overall numbers of asylum claims made in the UK and their outcome, the number of appeals made, and the number of people detained in immigration facilities.

Outside of refugees, the Home Office releases data on visas and citizenship.

However, it does not publish a comprehensive list of deaths recorded in the Channel.

Tallies are instead collected by organisations such as the International Organisation for Migration as part of its Missing Migrants project.

Axel Gaudinat from Utopia56, an aid organisation working in Calais, said of the prevention data: “These figures are totally unreliable, as the police chase people off the beaches when they intercept them… How is it possible to accurately count people in a cloud of tear gas? Once again, the French and British governments are using misleading communication.”

The French police have been criticised for their approach to stopping small boats. However, they argue that they are coming under increasing pressure, and even violence, from smugglers.

Policing around the French coast has been bolstered over recent years in a bid to crack down on Channel crossings, with the UK providing hundreds of millions of pounds to increase surveillance and police patrols on beaches.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has previously said the funding will help cut the number of crossings and prove a “sensible investment”.

Three migrants told i last year that French police fired tear gas into small boats as they attempted to cross the Channel and left them freezing and soaked on beaches.

Officers have been accused of attempting to destabilise and even sink the small boats, trying to physically force small boats to turn around in manoeuvres known as “pullbacks”, according to an investigation from newspapers including Le Monde.

The prefecture for the north of France said that officers were attempting to “dissuade passengers” from approaching the open sea.

The Home Office confirmed that police had been facing “increased tensions” around the coast, leading to “challenging conditions” for officers.

French police have also faced “increasing violence from migrants, and the criminal gangs who facilitate them”, when opposing the crossings, a Home Office source said.

Migrants attempting to cross the Channel are now taking longer, more dangerous routes in a bid to avoid heavy French policing, aid workers previously told i.

So far this year, 7,567 people have crossed the Channel, according to Home Office figures up to 30 April. This is a jump of 27 per cent compared with the same time last year, when 5,946 people had made the crossing.

In the week after the Safety of Rwanda bill passed, laying the groundwork for the first flights to take off, 711 people made the journey in a single day – a record for this year.

Three men, a woman and a seven-year-old girl died last month while attempting to reach the UK in a small boat, close to the French shore.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “We continue to work closely with French police who are facing increasing violence and disruption on their beaches as they work tirelessly to prevent these dangerous, illegal and unnecessary journeys.

“Last year they stopped 26,000 people from reaching our shores and it is important the public see the efforts we are jointly making to prevent dangerous crossings and save lives.

“The unacceptable number of people who continue to cross the Channel demonstrates exactly why we must get flights to Rwanda off the ground as soon as possible.”