Record number of migrant boats crossed the English Channel to Britain in 2021
LA TimesPeople believed to be migrants are brought to Dover, in southern England, on Tuesday by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, a maritime charity. At least 28,300 people packed into small boats crossed the English Channel from France to England’s southern coast in 2021, a record number that was triple the previous year’s tally. news agency based on data from Britain’s Home Office, reflects the soaring number of migrants seeking to cross the world’s busiest shipping lane, often in flimsy vessels provided by human smugglers. “People will continue to cross the channel in flimsy boats, and smugglers will continue to profit, unless ministers open up more routes for refugees to claim asylum here,” Naor Hilton said. But Home Office Minister Tom Pursglove said that “seeking asylum for protection should not involve people asylum-shopping country to country, or risking their lives by lining the pockets of criminal gangs to cross the channel.” He said that planned government changes to immigration law would criminalize entering Britain without permission and introduce lifetime prison terms for human smugglers.