Nearly 1,000 migrants cross Channel to the UK in two days after three-week pause

Nearly 1,000 migrants have crossed the Channel to the UK in two days after a three-week pause in arrivals.

Some 671 people in nine boats made the journey to Britain on Friday, when footage captured a man wielding a knife as he threatened migrants before boarding a dinghy.

It comes after 263 people in three boats crossed on Thursday, which broke a 21-day hiatus marking the longest spell without arrivals this year amid high sea swell and wind in the Channel.

Several children were among a large group of people wearing life-jackets who were seen being brought ashore in Dover, Kent, as better weather brought calmer crossing conditions.

In footage captured by the Press Association on Friday, a man was seen moving towards a boat holding a knife while in waist-deep water, and a man aboard the boat tries to hit him with a boot.

As the man in the water draws his arm back, he appears to drop the knife into the sea and moments later he boards the UK-bound boat.

A call of “I will kill you” was heard as French rescue boats hovered in the background just a short distance away.

With just over two months of the year to go, and with crossings typically lower during late autumn and winter, the data suggests the total number of crossings in 2026 is unlikely to surpass the figure for 2025.

The total number of arrivals for 2026 stood at 21,869 after Friday, according to Home Office figures.

The Government has said crossings are down significantly, with the lowest number of summer arrivals – a period when journeys often rise in part due to the warmer weather – since 2020 recorded this year.

The Tories claimed the new figures showed Labour had “lost control of our borders”.

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said: “The boats keep coming, the smugglers keep operating and Labour keeps making excuses.

“Labour is too weak to stop the boats. Andy Burnham is more concerned with appeasing his left-wing backbenchers than taking the tough action needed to secure our borders and deport illegal immigrants.

“Only the Conservatives have the backbone to deliver a borders plan including leaving the ECHR and deporting all illegal immigrants. That is how we end the crisis in the Channel.”