The data suggests that Brexit is making it easier for small boat crossings to reach the UK.
This is likely due to the Dublin Agreement no longer being in effect, meaning that asylum seekers who make it to the UK can no longer be repatriated to other European countries.
It has been revealed that a record number of migrants crossed the Channel in one day. Despite increasingly difficult weather conditions and attempts by the UK government to discourage them, 1,185 persons crossed the border on Thursday 11 November 2021 alone, according to the Home Office. Amongst such persons were individuals seeking asylum from Sudan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and Eritrea.
Despite the fact that the overall number of persons escaping conflict and seeking refuge in the UK had decreased to 31,115 during the previous year, the number of people crossing from France to the UK in tiny boats has increased dramatically since the UK left the EU.
Previously, when the UK was part of the EU, under the Dublin Agreement, the UK could ask other EU countries to take back people they could prove had passed through safe European countries before reaching the UK. The UK has yet to reach any bilateral agreements with other EU nations that would allow it to replicate the Dublin Agreement.
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