Publication of number of migrants stopped from crossing Channel axed

• The Home Office said it had paused publishing statistics ‘until further notice’

The Government has stopped publishing the number of migrants prevented from crossing the Channel in small boats just days after the policy was introduced.

The Home Office began issuing the number of migrants who had been blocked from making the crossing over the weekend alongside its daily update on Channel arrivals.

But, in a late update on Wednesday evening, the department said it had paused publishing the statistics on prevention ‘until further notice’.

It followed ‘consultation with the French’, the update said, and the department would ‘provide further updates on the publication of prevention data as soon as possible’.

Exact reasons for the U-turn have not been disclosed.

But the Home Office said the statistics were ‘estimates’ and prone to ‘measurement error’.

The Government has stopped publishing the number of migrants prevented from crossing the Channel in small boats just days after the policy was introduced. Pictured: An inflatable dinghy carrying around 65 migrants crosses the English Channel on March 06, 2024

A group of people thought to be migrants were brought in to Dover, Kent, from a Border Force vessel following a small boat incident in the Channel on April 29, 2024

Migrants walk in the sea to board a smuggler’s boat in an attempt to cross the English Channel, on the beach of Gravelines, near Dunkirk, northern France on April 26, 2024.

Prior to their removal from the Government’s website, prevention figures suggested 1,048 people had been stopped from crossing the Channel since April 29.

Critics have said the figures were misleading because those categorised as ‘prevented’ are not detained in France and are simply able to try again until they successfully cross the Channel.

So far this year 8,790 small boat migrants have reached Britain, up 34 per cent on the same point last year.

The Government this month launched a crucial first stage of its plan to deter Channel crossings.

A series of migrants, including women, were detained for removal to Rwanda under the long-delayed flagship scheme.

More than 100 people are now understood to have been held ahead of the first flight to Kigali, under a programme code-named ‘Operation Vector’.

The migrants are being held in the Home Office’s seven immigration removal centres for processing.

A group of people thought to be migrants including young children are brought in to Dover, Kent, from a Border Force vessel following a small boat incident in the Channel on May 7, 2024

Migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, onboard the RNLI Dover Lifeboat following a small boat incident in the Channel on April 30, 2024

They will go through an induction process, medical checks, and have legal aid and an interpreter provided.

Home Office caseworkers will assess evidence to determine whether asylum claim is ‘inadmissible’ under immigration law, and deal with human rights and modern slavery issues.

A decision will then be served on detainee, who will have an opportunity to launch legal challenges.

A trade union and a pro-migrant group have already announced new plans to challenge the Rwanda scheme as a whole.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said the inaugural Rwanda flight is due to take off by mid-July.

A Home Office spokesman said the UK continued 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’.

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