A staggering chart has laid bare the true scale of Britain’s asylum burden while Andy Burnham oversees a surge in crossings in his first fortnight as Prime Minister.
Multiple “mega-dinghies” carrying around 165 migrants each have contributed to the rising total of migrants making the crossing over the past two weeks.
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People smugglers have also been switching up their strategy by changing their launch points, kicking off from shores further away to avoid French authorities.
Data on those crossing the Channel is published every three months, with the latest figures covering the period to the end of March 2026.
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Although new Home Office data does not expose the impact of the latest crossings, figures show 187,779 migrants made the perilous journey across the Channel between 2018 and the end of 2025.
Around 95 per cent (178,845) of the illegal arrivals claimed asylum out of those that made the crossing.
Of this group, a staggering 79,589 (44.5 per cent) were granted refugee status or another type of leave by the end of 2025.
Meanwhile, applications of a smaller portion of 53,305 (29.8 per cent) were refused as Whitehall binned off their claim.
Some 33,413 (18.7 per cent) of the migrants were classed as “withdrawn” by either the migrant or the Home Office.
And, finally, 12,538 (seven per cent) were still waiting on a final decision from officials.
Separate figures for asylum seekers show that a whopping 42 per cent of claimants in the year ending March 2026 had arrived after crossing by small boat.
Increased scrutiny on asylum claimants using the letter of the law to dodge deportation and stay in Britain has taken centre stage on the migration debate.
BRITAIN’S BORDERS CRISIS – READ MORE:
- Mega-dinghy carrying dozens of illegal migrants catches fire while crossing Channel
- Neighbours plunged into ‘hell on Earth’ as hundreds of illegal migrants to be shipped in next door
- Nigel Farage rips into £1BILLION French failure and vows to end crossings ‘within fortnight’ as PM
Over the past two years, the Conservatives and Reform UK have repeatedly called on the Government to rip up the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
Such legislation has led to notorious instances, such as the infamous “chicken nugget migrant”, who used Article 8 of the treaty to argue that he should not leave the UK because his son had an aversion to foreign nuggets.
In another shocking story, one Iranian asylum seeker won the right to appeal against deportation by arguing his large number of Facebook friends puts him at risk of persecution.
The 38-year-old man insisted the Islamic Republic could be monitoring his Facebook account due to his popularity and attendance at protests outside their London embassy.
Despite a recent flurry in arrivals, the number of migrants who have reached the UK after crossing the English Channel so far this year is more than 40 per cent lower than at this point last year.
While the total figure is lower, the average number of people per boat is at a record high.
In July, 32 boats were used to transport 2,316 arrivals, giving an average of 72 migrants per boat, the highest average for any month since data on Channel crossings began in 2018.
One of the boats that made the journey in July this year was a dinghy carrying 165 people, making it the largest number of migrants to reach the UK in a single boat to date.
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