Andy Burnham urged to ‘stop the madness’ as Channel migrant death toll hits 180.TA
Migrants scramble for a boat in France (Image: Getty)
Andy Burnham must end the Channel migrant crisis once and for all as the death toll from the deadly crossings passes 180. The astonishing conflict-level loss of life – which experts believe is an undercount – is more than the 179 lives lost for British forces during the Second Gulf War.
As Labour delegates gather for the party’s annual conference, the Sunday Express today exposes the terror, despair and chaos unfolding in the Channel – and demands the Prime Minister and Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood bring the crisis to an end. The deadly crossing claimed two more lives last week as the Government face mounting fury for their inability to stop the tide of 18,565 migrants making the journey to Britain just this year.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage told this paper: “This madness must be stopped.
“The Channel crisis, driven by human rights lawyers, open borders zealots, and a government that has abandoned our borders has already become a humanitarian catastrophe.
“Andy Burnham must get a grip, deploy the Royal Navy, and start intercepting these dinghies, otherwise he will have more blood on his hands.”
Andy Burnham seen here on a boat in Liverpool is failing to address deaths in the Channel. (Image: Getty)
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For children, women and men crossing the Channel, the date they die might be the same day they cram themselves onto a dinghy to head to Britain.
Experts from the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford, which announced the 180-figure based on deaths from 2018 to 2026, said the “real toll may be higher than available numbers suggest”.
The UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM), which measures data from 2014, puts an even greater estimate on the loss of human life, 382 people, including 31 women and 43 children – almost double the headcount of an average UK primary school classroom. A UN spokesperson told this paper “behind every figure is a person, a family and a community”.
Horrific footage from a migrant boat launch in France last week showed a man leaving a baby behind as he made a mad scramble for a packed dinghy. The helpless tot was seen floating on the surf before French rescuers saved the child.
In harrowing testimony from another crossing, the Sunday Express has been told how a mother’s piercing scream was all that prevented her six-month-old baby from drowning in the bottom of a crowded migrant dinghy.
The tot slipped from her arms as a boat carrying dozens of asylum seekers bounced through the waves and “ended up face down in water”.
Panic ensued, and with the mother begging for help, the occupants created the smallest of fissures in the scrum to allow the small child to be rescued.
English Channel migrant deaths have reached a staggering 180 since 2018 (Image: Getty)
A whistleblower close to the top echelons of Border Force revealed harrowing details about the experiences of those crossing the Channel.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the source said: “I was speaking to a young woman who had crossed the channel the day before.
“She had arrived in a small boat with her children and I said to her what was the experience like?
“She told me it was terrifying. She was scared by how flimsy and overcrowded the boat was but she was shoved into the boat by the facilitators even though she could see there wasn’t enough space.
“The crossing was terrifying and during the journey her small baby, who was about 6 months old, slipped out of her arms and ended up face down in the water in the bottom of the boat and because the boat was so crowded she couldn’t pick her baby up.
“She knew her baby was drowning and eventually after screaming and crying at the other people in the boat they moved out of the way and she managed to pick her baby. She said it was the most terrifying experience of her life.”
Andy Burnham has said he won’t ‘put on date’ on ending the death toll in the Channel (Image: Getty)
The National Crime Agency (NCA) warned a sharp increase in deaths in 2024 was down to asylum seekers “opportunistically” charging through the water and bundling onto boats, leading to those on the vessels being crushed.
Last September, a child died after falling off a small boat in the Channel. It followed two women being crushed to death just days before.
And children were among three to die when they were crushed in the bottom of their boat during a horror incident in September 2025. A two-year-old boy was also trampled to death in a stampede in October 2024.
The crime kingpins have started “catering” to poorer migrants, mainly from the Horn of Africa, and this has led to a lower “average crossing prices”, an NCA insider told the Sunday Express.
And a Border Force source who has witnessed shipwrecks on the Channel described to the Express the terrifying scenes of panic and chaos that unfold when one of the flimsy inflatable dinghies begins to sink.
As the boats begin to deflate and take on water, a section of the vessel will begin to fold in on itself.
Amid the terror and panic, some migrants scramble to the other side of the sinking boat, causing the dinghy’s integrity to fail further.
And those trapped are unable to escape, submerged under the water, as the boat continues to collapse on top of them. Every crossing has the potential to leave occupants with life-changing injuries.
Many of those who reach Dover suffer horrific chemical burns caused by a toxic cocktail of engine fuel and seawater.
With their clothes soaked through, the mixture becomes trapped against the skin rather than evaporating, causing severe burns.
This includes children, who are often placed in the middle of the boats so that they don’t fall over the edge. It means they end up sitting in the fuel spewing out from engines made in China, sources said.
The boats themselves are often made from the same material used for children’s bouncy castles, held together with plywood and glue.
And callous people smugglers are prepared to separate youngsters from their parents moments before crossings.
A source told the Sunday Express: “Facilitators on the shores of Northern France forced a family into two small boats that were dangerously overcrowded.
“The family got split, with the mother going in one boat and the child of about six going in the other boat
“The mother’s boat ran into problems and ended up not crossing the Channel.
“The 6-year-old girl arrived in the UK on her own, with no parents, and had to be taken into care whilst we found her mother and father and reunited her with them.
“It was a stark reminder of the callous disregard the facilitators had for human lives, even children.”
Migrants with small children in the Channel off the coast of France. (Image: Getty)
Labour kick-off their conference in Liverpool today (Sunday) after the PM said he will ‘not put a date’ on stopping the crossing attempts.
The Prime Minister still blames Brexit for a “loss of collaboration” with European neighbours to stop the crisis, and despite saying his goal was to “see no crossings at all”, he added: “I’m not going to give you a date by which we can do that, or a promise we’ll do it, as other governments have done in terms of a particular deadline”.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp told the Sunday Express: “Andy Burnham and the Labour government – together with the French government who do nothing and the charities who actively encourage illegal immigrants – are culpable for these crossings.
“They must stop making pathetic excuses and take the tough measures needed to end these crossings completely and save lives.
“People are dying because of these crossings. I recently witnessed first-hand on a French beach the few women and children trying to board being shoved off the boat by aggressive young men.
“And when the illegal immigrants, who are mostly young men, get here they commit many terrible crimes including murder and multiple rapes with victims as young as just 12.
“It’s time for a different approach. There is a way to end this madness, as Australia did 13 years ago.
“We must leave the ECHR so illegal immigrants can be rapidly deported, not put up in hotels and paid money.
“Then the migrants would stop trying to cross in the first place.”
Former Border Force Director General Tony Smith told the Sunday Express: “Every successful crossing sends a message to the next migrant waiting on a French beach that this route still works.
“The smugglers keep adapting because the rewards remain high. Until that changes, this dangerous cycle will continue.”
Shocking moment migrant leaves child in the sea during horror Channel crossing
Shocking video footage showed a man carrying a child into the water, only to abandon the youngster
Migrant abandons child during Channel migrant crossing
This is the harrowing moment a migrant left an injured child and climbed onto a Channel dinghy as the stricken youngster was rescued.
Footage of the man carrying the terrified tot through the waves to a waiting taxi-boat emerged on the same day 781 people crossed. After a wave crashes into the small child near Berck, the migrant continues pushing towards the boat, which was already packed with asylum seekers.
A wave then carries the vessel into the pair, and the dazed child starts floating on top of the water. French lifeboat crews rushed through the water, lifting the shocked child onto a rescue paddleboard. But the man shockingly turns away and tries to climb onto the dinghy.
The bewildered child is then left sitting nearby, watching, as dozens of people flounder in the water, with others still trying to clamber onto the boat.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: “This is a sickening and heartbreaking scene. A few weeks ago, I saw a similar embarkation myself, where the young male illegal immigrants pushed women and children off the boat.
“The needy are abandoned and young, often-violent men push their way to the front and enter the UK. Women have recently died during crossings on these boats in unexplained circumstances. This illegal immigration route must be completely ended.
“The French government is morally culpable for letting it happen on their beaches when they could easily stop it, as the Belgians have done. The charities supporting this wave of illegal immigration are equally guilty for what is happening, including for the deaths that have occurred.”
The man carries the child towards the dinghy (Image: NowherePhotographer)
The child, apparently unmoving, falls into the water (Image: NowherePhotographer)
Rescuers approach the child (Image: NowherePhotographer)
The child is taken away (Image: NowherePhotographer)
France’s Maritime Prefect for the Channel and the North Sea said the child had been taken into care after the incident on Monday afternoon.
The organisation said: “The gendarmerie and the fire service subsequently took charge of the child, and the prefecture’s land-based services then took over. The child was taken into care following a medical incident.”
The astonishing moment came as 781 people crossed the Channel – a record number for this year.
It will heap pressure on ministers as they desperately try to convince people the borders are secure.
Some 18,565 people have crossed the Channel this year, down 42% on the equivalent point last year.
New analysis has revealed the number of migrants to have crossed the Channel under Labour is greater than the number of full-time soldiers in the British Army.
Some 83,279 people have arrived in small boats, overtaking the 83,000 in the Army.
An average of 103 people per day have crossed the Channel in the 809 days since Labour won the keys to Downing Street.
Mr Philp said: “Labour has let an entire Army-sized population cross the Channel illegally.
“More people have arrived in small boats than we have soldiers defending Britain. That is completely bonkers. Labour has lost control of our borders and seems utterly incapable of getting it back.
“The Conservative plan is to end hotels and benefits for illegal immigrants and instead deport them.”
The dinghy packed with migrants (Image: NowherePhotographer)
But Labour’s Lucy Powell, the Education Secretary, sensationally claimed that Border Force cannot intercept every single migrant crossing.
The Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, launched an “urgent review” as officials confirmed at least 21 asylum seekers arrived in Samphire Hoe on Tuesday.
Others are feared to be on the run, with the Home Office carrying out a “thorough investigation”.
And at least five migrants were detected at The Warren, a rocky stretch of coast near Folkestone, on Monday. The crossings were the first unauthorised landings in a year
Zia Yusuf, Reform’s Home Affairs spokesman, said: “This is an abject surrender of our borders by Lucy Powell and Labour. Every migrant boat can and should be intercepted, but this government is too gutless to deploy the Royal Navy and protect the British public from this invasion of undocumented fighting-age men.”
Mr Yusuf added: “It’s abundantly clear that this government will not stop the invasion of unvetted fighting-age males into our country.
“Instead, they are incentivising them with lavish police motorcades to their taxpayer-funded hotels, all while the British public struggles to afford to live in our own country.
“Labour’s promise to smash the gangs is in complete tatters. Without withdrawing from the ECHR and deploying the Royal Navy, the boats will keep on coming, and Brits will continue being forced to foot the bill for these invaders.”
Ms Powell echoed that language on Thursday but suggested not all crossings could be prevented.
Asked on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme if the situation was embarrassing for the Government, she responded: “(You) can’t stop everything all of the time.
“Of course, it’s a concern. That’s why the Home Secretary has demanded and ordered this urgent review, because this is not what we want to see. This is not acceptable.
“But the overall picture is an improving picture. It is hard, difficult work that requires constant, constant effort by our border forces, our security services, police, our partnerships with France and other countries.
“This is a mammoth and huge task, which is now starting to reap some dividends. But of course, you know where there are still issues arising, we must absolutely tackle them.”
Pressed on Good Morning Britain whether she stood by her statement, Ms Powell said: “I think you’re just taking that completely out of context.
“We are clamping down on small boat crossings every single day… we are sucking the oxygen out of it, we are taking steps, and there are many, many steps.
“It’s not an easy thing to do to just turn on a switch, turn off a switch overnight. We have to constantly evolve.”
A Government spokesperson said: “Our progress this year in tackling small boats is indisputable – with crossings down by 42% and the lowest recorded over the summer months since 2020.
“But this week’s events show that while the peaks we are seeing are far below those of previous years, we need to push further and harder in order to eradicate this vile trade.”
