Rishi Sunak Rwanda plan in disarray as 'more than 10,000 migrants cross Channel in small boats' this year
Rishi Sunak’s flagship Rwanda plan appeared in increasing disarray as more than 10,000 migrants are thought to have arrived in the UK so far this year after crossing the Channel.
The Prime Minister admitted on Thursday that no deportation flights, carrying asylum seekers and economic migrants who had arrived in Britain by “small boats”, are set to take off for Rwanda before the July 4 general election.
On Friday, groups of migrants, including several children, were seen being brought ashore in Dover, Kent, amid sunny and clear weather conditions at sea.
As of Wednesday, 9,882 people had made the journey from France, according to provisional Home Office figures.
Figures for Thursday are yet to be published.
Witnesses said one lifeboat arrived on Friday carrying around 40 people, with another 40 brought to shore on a Border Force boat.
A second Border Force vessel is believed to have been carrying at least 50 people.
This suggests around 130 migrants have arrived in the UK, indicating Channel crossings for 2024 to date have now hit 10,000.
Downing Street insists that the Government’s controversial plan for deportation flights to start some time in July is on track.
The Tories and Labour are making immigration a key issue for the general election.
Some Labour MPs believe that the Government may still get a deportation flight off the ground shortly before the country goes to the polls.
Net legal migration remains "unusually high" as the UK heads towards an election, experts said, despite official estimates suggesting a 10 per cent drop in numbers last year.
It comes after the measure for the difference between the number of people arriving and leaving the country hit a new record of 764,000 in 2022 - 19,000 higher than previously thought - according to revised figures from the Office for National Statistics.
The data also indicates net migration levels are estimated to have fallen in 2023 to 685,000.
Home Secretary James Cleverly insisted the plan to cut legal migration levels was "working".
He said: "The choice is clear in this election - sticking with our bold, clear plan to control immigration with Rishi Sunak and the Conservatives or going back to square one with Sir Keir Starmer's Labour Party, who don't believe in immigration controls, want an illegal immigration amnesty and have no plan to stop the boats.”
But shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper accused the Conservatives of total "chaos and failure" on immigration, adding: "This General Election is a choice - more chaos with the Conservatives, or a Labour government that can fix the chaos and get a grip on the immigration and asylum system again.”
