Number of migrants crossing Channel hits record high: 7,567 made journey from January to April - up 27% on same period in 2023 - as dozens more are picked up by Border Force today

The number of migrants crossing the Channel on small boats has hit a new record high for the first four months of the year, jumping 27% on 2023.

A total of 7,567 people made the journey from January to April, provisional Home Office figures show.

That is 27% higher than the number of arrivals recorded in the first four months of last year (5,946) and an increase of 13% compared to figures logged for the same period in 2022 (6,691).

On Tuesday alone, 268 people arrived in the UK in five boats and crossings continued on Wednesday, with dozens more being brought into Dover.

They arrived throughout the morning, disembarking in bright orange lifejackets. Conditions are currently favourable for crossings, with the sea calm.

Some 2,132 people made the journey in 42 boats in April, suggesting an average of 51 people per boat last month.

This is higher than the average for March - 48 people per boat - but lower than the peak of 56 people per boat in September 2023.

The news threatens to overshadow the Government celebrating the first failed asylum seeker being relocated to Rwanda.

The unnamed man is the first to have voluntarily moved to Africa after being offered up to £3,000 financial aid and sent on a commercial flight to the central African country.

The voluntary scheme which left on, which was widened to include Rwanda earlier this year, is separate from the Government's controversial plan to deport to the East African country people crossing the Channel in small boats.

But Kemi Badenoch said the news that he had moved to Rwanda should still be 'trumpeted'.

The Business Secretary told Times Radio: 'One of the big arguments about this scheme was Rwanda wasn't a safe country, and actually people are volunteering to go there.'

She said it would counter 'myths' about Rwanda and the controversial removals policy, calling the small nation 'a leader on the continent' both economically and in 'law and order'.

However Yvette Cooper, the Shadow Home Secretary, claimed the man's removal to Rwanda shows 'the Tories are so desperate to get any flight off to Rwanda before the local elections that they have now just paid someone to go'.