The UK is paying France to stop the boats and it’s working – but the ones getting through now carry 63 people each
Key Points
- French units funded by the UK stopped 185 small boat events between 27 April and 2 August, a prevention rate of 61%.
- Small boat arrivals stand at around 14,800 for 2026 so far, 43% below the same point in 2025.
- The average number of people per boat has risen from 7 in 2018 to 63 in the year ending March 2026.
- A single boat carrying 230 people crossed the Channel in August, and 752 people arrived on 29 July across nine boats.
- A trial to detain migrants on French beaches has produced figures that do not reconcile: 119 detained in total, against 76 still held, 32 released and 40 deported.
French police units paid for by the UK stopped 185 small boat crossing events in three months, while the boats that reached British shores carried an average of 63 people each.
The Home Office said officers prevented the launches between 27 April and 2 August, drawing on figures supplied by French authorities. That amounts to 61% of all small boat events over the period, up nearly 5% on the same months in 2025.
Four separate weeks saw French units intercept every potential crossing event. The department put the total number of crossing attempts blocked at more than 4,300.
At the same time, boat capacity has climbed steadily as enforcement has tightened. The House of Commons Library records an average of 63 people per small boat in the year ending March 2026, against 7 in 2018.
A single vessel carrying 230 people crossed in August. On 29 July, 752 people arrived across nine boats, the highest daily total of the year, and four people died in separate incidents during those crossings.
Overall arrivals have fallen sharply. Around 14,800 people have crossed in small boats in 2026 to date, 43% below the figure at the same point in 2025. The Migration Observatory puts the year-ending-July total at 30,200, marginally below the 31,500 recorded when Labour took office in July 2024.
It attributes the decline to a mix of government policy and factors outside UK control, including lower unauthorised arrivals into the EU, and says the two cannot be separated.
Smugglers have shifted to taxi boats
Gangs increasingly use larger inflatables that move along the coast and collect passengers in shallow water rather than launching directly from beaches.
French units have intercepted 12 of these taxi boats on the water since the tactic was first countered on 3 March, three of them in the past fortnight.
The Home Office cited beach interceptions, seizures of engines and fuel cans from vehicles heading to the coast, and drone surveillance among the methods used across May, June and July. “Our partnership with France is stronger than ever,” said Charlie Eastaugh, Director of Maritime and Small Boats at Border Security Command.
A trial launched on 1 May to remove migrants from French beaches has detained 119 people, according to statistics the French authorities provided to the Home Office.
The department also stated that 76 remain in detention, 32 have been released and 40 have been deported from France, either to their home countries or to other EU states they passed through. Those three figures total 148.
HotMinute has asked the Home Office to clarify the discrepancy.
