The number of people crossing the Channel in small boats to seek refuge in the UK hit a record for the year on Monday as Border Force staff prepared for thousands more arrivals this summer.
The Ministry of Defense said 696 made the journey on 14 small boats on Monday. There were 460 arrivals on Saturday and 247 on Friday, with more than 1,000 people crossing last week.
In July, 3,683 people crossed from France. This year’s total is believed to be more than 17,000.
The figures came amid reports of growing concern over plans to curb the number of boats carrying asylum seekers across the Channel.
Critics of government policy in Rwanda have seized on the latest figures as evidence that there has been no deterrent effect on the number of asylum seekers, as government ministers have claimed.
Paul O’Connor, the head of bargaining for the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union, which represents Border Force staff, said: “These statistics seriously undermine the government’s claim that its policy of deporting people to Rwanda acts as a deterrent. It’s time for the government to abandon the plan and switch to an asylum system based on humanity, not hostility.”
Defense chiefs are also said to be fed up with trying to enact the prime minister’s and home secretary’s imploding plan to use the military to control small boats in the Channel.
Home Office sources have admitted that the UK could receive up to 60,000 people by small boat this year, double last year’s record, with a further 20,000 arriving via different routes.
The two candidates vying to become the next leader of the Conservative party, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, have pledged to push ahead with the Rwanda plan if elected.
On Tuesday, large groups of recent arrivals, including young children, were seen disembarking at Ramsgate before leaving Kent port in double-decker buses.
In April, the government announced plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda as part of a five-year trial.
Johnson, backed by Home Secretary Priti Patel, said the plan would “over time prove to be a very considerable deterrent”.
But the deal has been widely criticized for failing to curb the numbers, as well as being expensive and breaching human rights laws. Since it was signed, 11,827 asylum seekers have arrived in the UK.
The first deportation flight was blocked after a late intervention by the European Court of Human Rights.
The home affairs committee last month found there was “no clear evidence” that the UK’s plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda would stop the risky Canal crossings.
A recent Home Office report said the Border Force may have worsened the small boat crisis.
Commissioned by Patel, he concluded that the resources needed to prevent illegal entry into the UK of small boats crossing the Channel “were not sustainable”.
Alex Downer, the former leader of Australia’s Liberal Party, who conducted the review, criticized “a cycle of crisis management” in the final report. Patel thanked his “constructive recommendations”.
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The Rwanda deal cost an initial £120 million, much of which the Rwandan government has already spent. The payment does not include the costs of flights, housing for five years or other benefits granted to anyone who moves to the central African state.
Several asylum seekers, the PCS union and charities such as Care4Calais and Detention Aid are challenging the legality of the policy, with court hearings set for September and October.
A government spokesman said: “The Nationality and Borders Act makes it a crime to knowingly come to the UK illegally and we have introduced life sentences for those who facilitate illegal entry into the country. Since the introduction of the act, 23 people have been arrested.
“Under our migration and economic development partnership with Rwanda, we are continuing preparations to resettle those who are making dangerous, unnecessary and illegal journeys to the UK to have their claims considered, so they can rebuild their lives and deter others from making life-threatening crossings.”