Channel crossings by migrants in 2026: What we know so far

Migrants return to Morocco from the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, Friday, July 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Antonio Sempere)

The number of migrants who have reached the UK after crossing the English Channel so far this year is more than 40% lower than at this point in 2025, despite a recent flurry in arrivals.

Here, we have a look at the the latest available data for crossings and the long-term trends.

– Year-on-year comparisons Some 14,526 migrants have arrived in the UK by crossing the Channel in small boats this year as of August 1, according to provisional figures from the Home Office.

This is 43% below the number of arrivals at this stage last year, which was 25,436.

It is also 14% below the number at this point in 2024, which was 16,903.

Looking further back, this year’s total is only slightly below the number of migrants who had arrived by this stage in 2023, which was 14,732.

The record for the largest number of migrants to arrive in the UK in a calendar year is 45,774, which was set in 2022.

This year’s current total of 14,526 is 15% below the figure at this point in 2022.

– Migrants per boat While the number of migrants arriving in small boats is running at a lower level this year, the average number of people per boat is at a record high.

There were 2,316 arrivals in July, the lowest figure for the month since 2020.

Only 32 boats were used to make these crossings, however, giving an average of 72 migrants per boat.

This is the highest average for any month since data on Channel crossings began in 2018.

One of the boats that made the journey in July this year was a dinghy carrying 165 people.

This was the largest number of migrants to reach the UK in a single boat to date.

The average number of migrants per boat has increased each year since 2018.

The figures were low to begin with, at seven per boat in 2018, 11 in 2019 and 13 in 2020.

The average then jumped to 28 per boat in 2021, 41 in 2022, 49 in 2023, 53 in 2024 and 62 in 2025.

So far this year the average is running at 67 per boat.

– Nationality of arrivals Data on the nationality of migrants crossing the Channel is published every three months.

The latest figures go up to the end of March 2026.

They show that four nationalities accounted for more than half of the arrivals in the year to March: Eritrean (17.9% of the total), Afghan (11.4%), Sudanese (11.2%) and Iranian (11.1%).

The next most common nationalities were Somali (9.5%), Iraqi (4.1%), Ethiopian (4.1%) and Syrian (3.4%).

It is the first time Eritrean has topped the list of nationalities for arrivals in a 12-month period ending in March.

Afghan was the most common nationality in 2024/25 and 2023/24, while Albanian was top in 2022/23 and Iranian was top in 2021/22, 2020/21, 2019/20 and 2018/19.

– Asylum granted to arrivals There is a greater lag with data for asylum granted to migrants arriving on small boats, because of the time it takes for claims to be processed, assessed and recorded.

The latest Home Office figures go up to the end of December 2025.

They show that of the 187,779 migrants who have arrived in the UK by this route since 2018, 178,845 (95%) claimed asylum.

Of those who did claim asylum, 79,589 (44.5%) had been granted refugee status or another type of leave by the end of 2025, 53,305 (29.8%) had been refused, 33,413 (18.7%) were classed as “withdrawn” – either by the Home Office or the claimant – and 12,538 (7.0%) were still waiting a decision.

Separate figures just for asylum seekers show that 42% of people who claimed asylum in the UK in the year to March 2026 had arrived in the country after crossing the Channel by small boat.