The number of migrants crossing in small boats threatens to reach 200,000 in total since the crisis began – despite hundreds of millions of pounds sent to the French to stop it

The total number of migrants who have reached Britain since the start of the Channel crisis is about to exceed 200,000.

Projections suggested the grim milestone would be crossed on Monday after more than 400 arrivals on Sunday took the total to 199,828.

Official data published by the Home Office shows the huge number of small boat migrants arriving in Britain since the first recorded crossing on January 31, 2018.

The 200,000 migrants are equivalent to the population of a city the size of Norwich.

There were 422 arrivals on Sunday on board six dinghies which were intercepted halfway across the Channel by the UK Border Force and taken to Dover.

It came after there were 325 crossings on Saturday and 55 on Friday.

The UK Border Force catamaran Defender was in service in the Channel on Monday, landing dozens more migrants – in addition to the confirmed total.

Official totals for Monday will not be published until later – but the total is likely to pass 200,000 if further crossings are made at high tide, as expected.

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: ‘Overruns have risen by 45 per cent since the election and Labor is no longer in control of our borders.

“This is chaos and tens of thousands of young male illegal immigrants pour into the country every year.

‘Some go on to commit murder, rape and sexual assault.

‘Out of control illegal immigration is causing a crime crisis.’

He added: ‘There is only one solution: we must leave the European Convention on Human Rights, which will allow us to deport any illegal immigrant within a week of arrival. Then the crossings will stop soon.

“That’s the Conservative plan, but Labor is too weak to do it.”

One of Labor’s first acts in office was to scrap the previous government’s asylum deal with Rwanda, which was intended to deter border crossings and save lives.

Two migrants – a 16-year-old girl and a woman in her 20s – died on Sunday while trying to cross the Channel aboard an overcrowded rubber boat. The engine caught fire and it is feared they may have been trampled in the ensuing panic.

The International Organization for Migration estimates the total number of deaths from crossing the Channel since 2018 at 288, including 148 drownings.

Last month, Labor confirmed that British taxpayers must hand the French up to £660 million for small boat patrols, taking the total since the crisis began to above £1.3 billion.

Home Affairs Minister Shabana Mahmood agreed to give Emmanuel Macron’s government a £500 million ‘core package’ – spread over the next three years – to continue funding the French police’s anti-migrant operations.

A further £160 million will be handed over to fund new tactics by the French, including stopping dinghies once they are already in the water.

An earlier three-year deal worth £500 million was agreed by then Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in 2023 and more than 84,000 migrants reached Britain during the term of the agreement.

It was part of £658 million in security payments given to France since 2018, a House of Commons Library report has revealed.

Last year, 41,472 migrants reached Britain, the second-highest annual total since the crisis began.

More migrants have arrived under Sir Keir Starmer’s tenure as Prime Minister than under any other Prime Minister, with 71,932.

Sir Keir surpassed the previous record of 65,800 under Boris Johnson in February this year.

As part of Labour’s programs aimed at tackling the crisis, Ms Mahmood has also signed a scheme that will give families of failed asylum seekers up to £40,000 to return home voluntarily.

They can agree to receive £10,000 per head, up to a maximum of £40,000, plus plane tickets home.

But Ms Mahmood has refused to reveal how many families have accepted the offer, and that is what happened accused by the Tories of ‘shocking secrecy’ over the programme.

If any asylum seekers have rejected the offer of money, it would be a devastating indictment of the British asylum system.

It would indicate that migrants have calculated that they are better off if they can stay here indefinitely, at taxpayer expense.

It would also open the prospect of Ms Mahmood increasing the cash offer to a much higher level in an attempt to convince the families to leave.

Officials said when the scheme was launched that they would look at increasing the financial incentive ‘subject to uptake’.

Most failed asylum seeker families who receive the money live in migrant hotels at an average cost of £158,000 per year per family.

The scheme was launched on March 5 and the deadline to accept the offer passed on March 12, with Ms Mahmood arguing that the cash payouts would save money in the long term.

Another Labor program – the ‘one in, one out’ deal with the French government – ​​has seen more migrants brought into Britain under the reciprocal terms of the deal than removed.

In late 2018, then Home Secretary Sajid Javid declared a ‘national emergency’ as migrant border crossings began to become more frequent – ​​even though fewer than 300 had arrived by the end of the year.

A Home Office spokesperson said: ‘This government is cracking down on small boat crossings.

‘The Home Secretary has signed a groundbreaking new deal with France to boost enforcement on beaches and put people smugglers behind bars.

‘This builds on collective work that has stopped more than 42,000 illegal migrants attempting to cross the Channel since the election.

“We have removed or deported nearly 60,000 people who were here illegally and are continuing to remove the incentives that draw illegal immigrants to this country.”