A total of 41,472 small boat migrants arrived in the UK in 2025. It marks the second-highest year on record after 45,774 made the dangerous crossing in 2022.
The total for last year is up 13% from 2024 when 36,816 migrants made the journey and 41% more than 2023 when 29,437 crossed. For much of 2025, the number of arrivals was running at the highest level since data was first published in 2018.
But the pace slowed during the last two months of the year and the Home Office confirmed today that no migrants made the journey on New Year’s Eve, continuing a run of no crossings over the festive period.
The average number of people per boat rose again in 2025, continuing a trend that has been under way since 2018.
There were an average of 62 arrivals per boat last year, up from 53 in 2024 and 49 in 2023.
The Government has faced increasing pressure to tackle the small boats crisis after vowing to “small the gangs” in the 2024 general election.
But nearly 65,000 migrants have arrived in the country by small boat since Labour came to power.
The UK’s Border Security Commander, Martin Hewitt, tasked with curbing Channel crossings, told MPs in October that the number of arrivals in 2025 is “frustrating” but that work to stop the smuggling route was “always going to take time”.
The Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act became law in December, which introduces new criminal offences and allows law enforcement agencies to use counter terror-style powers to crack down on people-smuggling gangs.
In November, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood also announced plans for a raft of reforms in what she described as “the most significant changes to our asylum system in modern times” in a bid to deter people from coming to the UK and make it easier to deport them.
Under changes inspired by the Danish system, refugee status will become temporary with regular reviews every 30 months, and refugees will be forced to wait 20 years for permanent settlement in the UK, up from five years currently.
But the Tories and Reform UK have warned the plans do not go far enough and have called for Britain to leave the European Convention on Human Rights.
