UK: More crossings and record number of deaths in Channel ― Government presents draft migration and asylum law  ― Migration deal with Tunisia

• There was a 25% increase in the number of people who crossed the Channel in small boats in 2024, and a record number of deaths.
• The government has unveiled a draft law aimed at strengthening border security and repealing various elements of its predecessor’s migration and asylum policies.
• The government has unveiled a multi-million package of aid for Tunisia to address the ‘root causes of irregular migration’ from the country.

There was a 25% increase in the number of people who crossed the Channel in small boats in 2024. According to data published by the Home Office (Ministry of the Interior) in early January, 36,816 people made the crossing in 2024 compared to 29,437 in the previous year. Although the number of crossings did not exceed the all-time record (45,774 in 2022), 2024 was the worst year in terms of the number of deaths and disappearances of people on the move. According to the International Organization for Migration’s (IOM) Missing Migrants Project, at least 82 people, including 14 children, died trying to cross the Channel in 2024. ECRE member organisation the Refugee Council published a report on the number of deaths in the Channel, in which it urged the UK government to publish quarterly data jointly with the French government, improve search and rescue operations along the French coast and expand safe and legal routes to the UK. “The record number of deaths in the Channel in 2024 should serve as a stark reminder that the current approach is not working,” said the organisation’s CEO, Enver Solomon, adding: “The total number of deaths may well be even higher because the lack of monitoring by the French and UK authorities means that there isn’t an accurate picture”. “The Government needs to take a different approach if it is to ensure everything possible is done so that 2025 does not see a repeat of last year’s devastating loss,” he concluded.

The government has unveiled a draft law aimed at strengthening border security and repealing various elements of its predecessor’s migration and asylum policies. The ‘Border Security, Asylum and Migration Bill’, which was introduced to parliament on 30 January, will, inter alia, allow border officials to seize people’s phones to search for intelligence about smugglers and create new offences relating to endangering people’s lives at sea and preparing acts of smuggling. It will also repeal the law that enabled the now abandoned Rwanda scheme (Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Act 2024) and certain provisions of the 2023 Illegal Migration Act. The UK government has described the measures included in the draft law as being “inspired by the approach taken to counter terrorism, enabling earlier intervention against those facilitating organised crime”. Introducing the bill, Home Secretary (Minister of the Interior) Yvette Cooper said: “These new counter terror-style powers, including making it easier to seize mobile phones at the border, along with statutory powers for our new Border Security Command to focus activity across law enforcement agencies and border force will turbocharge efforts to smash the gangs”.

The introduction of the draft law has received mixed responses from NGOs. Enver Solomon welcomed the government’s “commitment to restoring order in the asylum system”. “By scrapping the costly and fantastical Rwanda plan, repealing much of the previous government’s draconian legislation and overturning the pause on processing asylum applications, the Government has averted a meltdown, cutting delays and preventing higher hotel costs,” he said. However, he also warned of the risks of a “gross miscarriage of justice” by potentially criminalising people seeking asylum in the UK. “The Government is also right to seek to tackle the vicious smuggling gangs but we are very concerned that by creating new offences, many refugees themselves could also be prosecuted, which has already been happening in some cases,” he said. Solomon also expressed disappointment that the draft law did not go far enough in reforming the UK’s asylum system. “A properly reformed system would have safe and legal routes for refugees, accurate first-time decisions about who can stay and who must leave, and meaningful support to help refugees integrate into their communities and contribute to Britain,” he added. Solomon’s criticism was echoed by the head of the NGO Asylum Aid, Alison Pickup. “Further criminalisation and measures blocking people from protection will do nothing to address the causes of forced displacement and unauthorised movement through Europe to the UK,” she said.

The government has unveiled a multi-million package of aid for Tunisia to address the ‘root causes of irregular migration’ from the country. During a visit to Tunisia on 31 January, Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs (Minister of Foreign Affairs) David Lammy announced that the UK would provide £ 5 million “to boost UK funded programmes in the region to upskill migrants in-country, making it less likely that they will make dangerous small boat journeys to Europe, including the UK, and undermine the country’s border security”. He also announced that the UK would provide up to £ 1 million to the IOM’s Assisted Voluntary Returns and Reintegration programme to “support transiting migrants who have no legal right to be in Tunisia and to return and reintegrate them to their home country”. Exactly one week after the Guardian newspaper reported that the European Commission was planning to overhaul its funding to Tunisia in response to revelations of abuses committed by EU-funded security forces, Lammy praised the work of the Tunisian authorities’ efforts to prevent people from attempting to reach Europe. “The Tunisian National Maritime Guard are using UK supplied drone and night vision to dissuade perilous journeys by sea, smash the gangs, and save lives,” he X posted. Neither the government’s press release nor Lammy’s X post mentioned the repeatedly raised concerns about human rights abuses committed by Tunisian authorities against people on the move or the ongoing repression of civil society in the country.

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