As many as 80% of migrants are successful in making the crossing from France to England (Image: Getty)
Eighty per cent of the migrants who board small boats in France to make the perilous journey across the Channel for Britain are successful in their quest, figures have revealed.
A deep analysis of crossing data for the first time shows a staggeringly high success rate of four in five completing the 21-mile sea voyage during the past three years.
This comes despite Britain spending millions on improving French defences at freight and passenger ports like Calais.
And the research also found the number of migrants risking their lives by clambering aboard flimsy boats has soared from 37 in 2022, to 45 in 2023 and 56 last year.
The figures have been calculated by French politicians who analysed crossing attempts over that period of time and also used police and emergency service records.
Despite a huge amount of resources being put into reducing the small boats problem – which started back in 2018 – French rescuers have moaned they do not have enough, as they had to launch 830 search and rescue operations to save migrants from overpacked and sinking dinghies.
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Labour pledged last week to use extra powers to crackdown on people smuggling rings (Image: Getty)
The study showed 45,755 migrants made the crossing in 2022, 29,437 in 2023 and 36,817 in 2024.
A total of 112,009 people made it to Britain this way with an estimated 24,000 being unsuccessful during that time, according to French government figures.
The UK Government has spent tens of millions of pounds beefing up security on the French coast to stop migrants leaving, with extra policing, CCTV, drones, new technology and fences, but the migrants have continued to cross this year.
A Calais prosecution source said: “It shows an awful lot more work is needed to stop this problem once and for all.”
Alp Mehmet, chairman of Migration Watch UK, said: “This shows that the Government does not have a proper plan in place to solve the problem. They are all for catchphrases and not action. They scrapped Rwanda, the only plan we had in place and have not come up with any proper deterrent.”
“Huge numbers of migrants continue to arrive and it will carry on throughout 2025. People traffickers are laughing in the faces of the British Establishment.”
Labour pledged last week to use extra powers to crackdown on people smuggling rings, including imposing financial restrictions and asset freezing on them.