How many people cross the Channel in small boats?

Prime Minister Keir Starmer says he plans to cut the number of people crossing the Channel in small boats by taking tougher measures to "smash" people smuggling gangs.

A plan by the previous Conservative government to deport migrants to Rwanda was scrapped by Labour.

As of 19 August, 19,294 people had crossed the Channel in 2024. That's more than in the same period the previous year but below the level in 2022.

In 2023 as a whole, 29,437 people came to the UK in small boats.

That was a big drop from the 2022 total of 45,755, external, which was the highest since figures were first collected in 2018.

Since 2018, more than 130,000 people have come to the UK by this route.

In the year ending June 2024, Afghans were the top nationality crossing the Channel, making up just under a fifth of all small boat arrivals.

Iranians (13%) were in second place, followed by arrivals from Vietnam and Turkey, both on 10%.

About 83% of small boat arrivals in the 12 months to June 2024 were male and - where age was recorded - more than 40% were between 25 and 39 years old.

Just over 97,000 people claimed asylum in the year to the end of June 2024, external.

The number of annual applications for asylum - including dependants - peaked at about 103,000 in 2002, as people fled conflicts in Afghanistan, Somalia and Iraq.

Claims then fell sharply, dropping to a 20-year low of 22,600 in 2010.

However, numbers rose again throughout the 2010s, as refugees fled Syria.

In 2022 the number of applications reached almost 100,000 again.

In the year to the end of June 2024, he largest number of UK asylum seekers came from Afghanistan - 9,342.

Other big countries for applications were Iran, Pakistan, Vietnam, India, and Bangladesh.

In 2022, Albanians were the top nationality with more than 17,300 people (including dependants) claiming asylum. Three quarters arrived on small boats.

Ukrainian refugees who came to the UK after Russia's invasion of their country are not included in these figures.

As of 22 August 2024, 262,100 visas had been issued to Ukrainian refugees, external who have come through legal routes set up by the UK government.

There are separate arrangements for a few other specific groups to come to the UK, such as some Afghan refugees and Hong Kong citizens.

Some people wait months or even years for their claims to be considered.

At the end of June 2024, external there were 85,839 cases relating to 118,882 people awaiting an initial decision.

The previous prime minister, Rishi Sunak, pledged to clear older claims by the end of 2023, but 4,500 "complex cases" were still awaiting a decision at the end of December.

Official figures showed that on 14 April 2024, 2,377 of those applications were still waiting for an initial decision, external.

The Home Office can remove people with no legal right to stay in the UK, or refuse to let them enter.

In the year to the end of June 2024, 7,190 people who were not granted asylum were returned to their home country, external. This is up 48% from the previous year (4,873), mainly because of a rise in Albanian returns.

In the same year, 2,336 people who arrived in small boats were returned. Between 2018 and June 2024, 3,788 people who came to the UK in small boats were returned, which is 3% of all small boat arrivals in that period.

In December 2023, the Home Office revealed that only 408 non-Albanians who had come to the UK on small boats had been returned, external to their home countries since 2020.

In 2023, there were 263,048 sea arrivals in Europe, external, with Italy receiving 60% of those (157,314).

Spain received 57,071 people and Greece 41,561.

As of 19 August 2024, just over 98,000 people had arrived into Europe via the sea, external since the start of the year.

The number of arrivals in Europe peaked in 2015, when more than a million people crossed its borders - the majority fleeing the Syria conflict.

In 2023, the UK had the fifth highest number of people claiming asylum in Europe.

With 329,035 applicants, Germany received more than a quarter of all first-time asylum applicants within the EU, external.

Spain had the second highest number (160,460) followed by France (145,095) and Italy (130,565).

In 2023, the UK government made initial decisions on 93,303 asylum applications - including people attached to them such as children or other dependents - and granted more than two thirds of them (67%).

In the same period, Germany made 217,430 asylum decisions, and granted 62%.

France - a country with a similar-sized population to the UK - made 132,695 decisions, and granted 31% of them.