Migrants Coming to UK in Boats
Since 2018, almost every day, migrants have tried to cross the English Channel in small boats or dinghies to flee war or make money in another country. The English Channel is a sea or stretch of water in between the UK. Most children make this trip alone, but some still make it with their families. They probably came from their home country to the UK.
Some people are going to the UK because they are fleeing war or mistreatment in their original country. Others are hoping to make money by going to another country illegally. This method of arrival is illegal according to UK laws, commonly organized by criminals.
The Migration Observatory says that children have traveled to the UK in dinghies for 7 years, since 2018, says the BBC. The observatory used the Home Office data to find that out. In 2024, nearly 37,000 people crossed the English Channel.
People arriving in the UK do so in small boats through the English Channel. In 2024, the total number was 948,000. While most of the people have applied to come and arrived legally, most people, 108,000 people, wanted to claim asylum, or refugee status. A lot of those people were under 18 and unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. They traveled without an adult.
Traveling in small boats or dinghies is unsafe and risky. They aren’t designed to be used to cross the sea because they can easily fall. They normally stuff too many people on board. The English Channel has big ships like cargo ships crossing it a lot because it’s one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world.
There is not only the danger of large ships, because most migrants rely on bad guys, who they pay a lot of money to make this trip or journey. The gangs don’t always prepare protective gear, like life jackets. Sometimes they do, but those are usually unusable. Despite this, people use these boats regularly.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his Labour Party describe the small boats crossing a “crisis”. He lowered the number of criminals, but the number of migrants crossing has increased. The Liberal Democrats‘ 2024 manifesto focused on creating a “fair, effective immigration system that treats everyone with dignity and respect,” and they pledged to “pick up illegal migrants out of boats and take them back to France.” Reform UK says they want to take back control of our borders.” We should treat every migrant as a potential citizen, like the Green Party says.