Janice, thank you.You said many people voted for Brexit because of illegal immigration, which Wikipedia agrees with i.e. "Polls found that the main reasons people voted Leave were "the principle that decisions about the UK should be taken in the UK", and that leaving "offered the best chance for the UK to regain control over immigration and its own borders."One thing that's happened since 2018 is that the number of small boat crossings has increased from a very low number to a rolling 12 month average that's varied between 30,000 and 50,000 from around 2022 onwards.The websitehttps://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/briefings/people-crossing-the-english-channel-in-small-boats/gives a lot of insight.Some take away facts - small boat crossings have increasingly become the most predominent (detected) was of entering the UK. Not surprising really given that strong measures were put into place to detect people trying to come in via lorries.Figure 7 (on the link I gave) shows that numbers of people being returned to their country of origin has been increasing since 2022.How many people who arrived by small boat have been removed from the UK?Around 2,600 people who had first arrived in the UK by small boat were returned to another country in 2025. In total, there were 7,500 such returns between 2018 and 2025 – around 4% of all arrivals during this period.Why do people cross the Channel by small boat?There is limited evidence on why Channel migrants decide to come to the UK. Several factors appear to play a role in their decision, such as the presence of friends and family members in the UK. The most common nationalities crossing the Channel have larger diaspora populations in the UK rather than in France. Other reasons include language and cultural links to the UK, perceptions of the UK as safe and welcoming, as well as negative experiences in other European countries.Much debate has focused on whether UK policies affect the decisions of those seeking to cross the Channel. In general, academic research finds that small variations in policy between countries are not the most important factor influencing how many people claim asylum in destination countries. Global developments, such as conflict and instability in countries of origin, appear to be more important. Unauthorised migrants’ destination countries may also be influenced in some cases by the decisions of their smugglers.Research on asylum seekers’ motivations finds that they have varying levels of knowledge about the policies that will face them when they arrive, or recent changes to such policies. Prospective migrants are generally aware of both the risks involved in an unauthorised journey – such as death, violence, or abuse – and the potential economic benefits of reaching their destination. However, limited information means that many underestimate risks and overestimate their chances of obtaining legal status.One policy factor that may have influenced people’s decision to cross the Channel is that the UK is no longer part of the Dublin system. Before Brexit, this allowed for some asylum seekers to be returned to their EU country of first arrival, as well as information sharing on asylum applications made in other member states. In interviews, migrants in Northern France often cite the departure from Dublin as a reason for wanting to seek asylum in the UK, particularly if they had already been refused protection in the EU. However, it is unclear how big a role this played in their decision-making. In practice, few people were returned under Dublin when the UK was still a member – an average of 560 a year between 2008 and 2020.Another argument – made by France’s previous Interior Minister, among others – has been that Britain’s liberal labour market regulations and lack of ID cards attract migrants. However, there is little evidence that the UK’s lack of an ID card system acts as a draw to migrants. As in France, British employers can be fined or imprisoned if they are found to have hired someone without permission to work and did not check their immigration status. In fact, data from the World Bank suggest that the informal economy – which includes many undeclared activities and is likely to rely on the employment of people without work authorisation – is smaller in the UK than in France, relative to the economy.I've cut and pasted the above paragraphs - but I'd recommend reading the whole article I linked to, as I found it very informative.
Andrew Jones ● 14d