The number of people arriving in the UK in 2024 after crossing the Channel in small boats was up by a quarter on the previous year, figures show.
A total of 36,816 people made the journey in 2024, a jump of 25% from the 29,437 who arrived in 2023, according to provisional Home Office figures, but lower than the record 45,774 arrivals in 2022.
The last crossings of the year took place on 29 December, when 291 people made the journey from France in six boats.
The Home Office recorded no further crossings for the remaining two days of 2024, when weather conditions were blustery.
It means 2024 had the second highest number of arrivals in a year since data on Channel crossings began in 2018.
The total was comparatively low in 2018 at 299 and 2019 at 1,843, before climbing to 8,466 in 2020, 28,526 in 2021 and 45,774 in 2022.
It then fell to 29,437 in 2023, before rising to 36,816 in 2024.
The rise in the number of crossings last year came after the former prime minister Rishi Sunak had to accept he failed to keep his promise to “stop the boats” when Labour defeated the Conservatives in the general election.
The change in government also meant the former home secretary Suella Braverman never got to see her “dream” of sending people to Rwanda become reality, after the policy stalled amid legal action and was then ruled unlawful by the supreme court.
Her successor, James Cleverly, failed in his attempt to get flights off the ground, despite bringing fresh legislation back to parliament and signing another treaty with the east African country in an attempt to firm up the agreement and satisfy concerns the court had raised.
A total of 13,574 people arrived in the UK between the start of 2024 and the general election on 5 July, according to PA Media’s analysis of Home Office data.
It was a record number for this period of the year and 19% higher than the 11,433 who arrived between 1 January and 5 July 2023. It was also 5% higher than the 12,900 who arrived in the same period in 2022.
The number of arrivals between the general election and the end of 2024 was also higher than the equivalent period in 2023, but lower than the figure for 2022.
A total of 23,242 people arrived between Labour’s victory on 5 July and 31 December, up 29% on the 18,004 arrivals in the same period in 2023 and down 29% on the 32,855 in 2022.
At his first press conference after entering Number 10 as prime minister in July, Keir Starmer said the deportation plan was “dead and buried” as Labour swiftly met one of its manifesto pledges by scrapping the scheme.
The home secretary, Yvette Cooper, said last month that the government had a moral responsibility to tackle Channel crossings but refused to set a deadline on when a target of getting the numbers to fall sharply would be met.
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Cooper said the UK must go after the gangs behind the dangerous crossings and appeared to rule out creating more safe and legal routes for asylum seekers as a way of curbing the number of attempts.
Starmer has put international cooperation with law enforcement agencies in Europe at the heart of his efforts to cut the number of arrivals.
The prime minister previously said his government “inherited a very bad position” with record numbers of arrivals in the first half of last year “because the entire focus until we had the election was on a gimmick, the Rwanda gimmick, and not enough attention was on taking down the gangs that are running this vile trade”.
But “if the boats and the engines aren’t available, it obviously makes it much more difficult for these crossings to be made”, he said.
His comments follow him previously vowing to “treat people smugglers like terrorists” as he announced extra cash for his new border security command.
The National Crime Agency said it was leading about 70 live investigations into organised immigration crime or human trafficking.
The year 2024 was considered the deadliest for Channel crossings, according to incidents recorded by the French coastguard. Fifty-three people died while embarking on the journey across the busiest shipping lane in the world to reach the UK.
The International Organization for Migration has reported several more deaths that are believed to be linked to crossing attempts last year.