British authorities announced Sunday that 10,170 irregular immigrants have arrived in Britain since the beginning of this year via small boats that crossed the English Channel from the coast of northern France.
The British Ministry of the Interior said in a statement that this number is a new record that exceeds the previous record of 9,326 people, which was recorded between January and May 2022, noting that five new boats arrived in southern England on Friday, with 288 migrants on board.
The statement pointed out that the largest daily toll of irregular migrants was recorded on May 1st, when 711 people arrived in the coast of southern England.
This new toll came at a time when the British government failed to deport any irregular immigrant to Rwanda in accordance with the agreement that the two countries signed two years ago.
Government of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak faced several judicial, parliamentary and procedural obstacles to implementing the agreement at a time when the flow of clandestine migrants across the Channel continues on a daily basis, while the opposition Labor Party promised to abandon the policy of deporting migrants to Rwanda.
Irregular immigration constitutes a major issue in the election campaign, which was officially launched last Wednesday with Sunak announcing June 4 as the date for the general elections in the country.
