A small boat has crossed the English Channel carrying 230 people, the largest-ever recorded number to make the journey in a single vessel.
The boat arrived in the UK in the early hours of Monday.
The 230 people on one boat breaks the previous record from July when 165 people made the crossing on a single vessel.
A Home Office spokesperson said this latest incident demonstrated the "reckless and dangerous tactics employed by criminal gangs... who continue to put lives at risk by cramming ever greater numbers of people onto unseaworthy vessels".
Provisional Home Office figures for the number of people who have made the crossing this year so far is 14,819 - 43% lower than the number recorded by this time last year, and down 16% on the same period in 2024.
Earlier this month, more than 170 people were rescued after the boat they were using to make the crossing caught fire.
People smugglers have been increasing the number of migrants crammed into boats, with the average number of people per small boat increasing each year since the crossings began.
In 2018, there was an average of seven per boat but last year, that had risen to 62.
The English Channel is one of the most dangerous, and busiest, shipping lanes in the world.
Many migrants come from poor and chaotic parts of the world, and ask to claim asylum once they are picked up by the UK authorities.
On X, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said: "At 2.30am this morning a boat carrying 230 people was taken into Dover.
"This is a record number in a single vessel.
“It's yet more proof that this illegal invasion is a national security emergency.”
‘We must go further’
On a recent visit to Dover, the prime minister pledged his government would be "relentless" in curbing the number of small boat arrivals.
Andy Burnham said enforcement officers tackling people-smuggling gangs had been doubled on both sides of the Channel, but "a system that offers safe routes for people" needed to be built as well.
In April, the UK and France struck a £662m (773m euro) deal aiming to address the issue.
The three-year agreement included plans to send riot-trained police to French beaches to tackle violence and "hostile crowds", as well as France deploying millions of pounds of drones and two helicopters as part of a system to intercept people smugglers and illegal migrants.
Earlier on Monday, a Home Office spokesperson said: "We are making progress, with the number of small boat crossings down this year and the lowest number recorded for the month of July since 2020.
“But we must go further, which is why we have signed a payment-by-results deal with the French to put 40% more boots on the ground on French beaches.”
Source: BBC
– Agencies
