Europe migrant crisis

Nearly 20,000 people arrived in the UK in the first half of 2025 by crossing the Channel in small boats

Sir Keir Starmer has promised to "smash the gangs" which smuggle people across the English Channel.

The arrivals come as UK and French leaders finalise a migrant return plan.

Improving border enforcement is a key point of discussion during Emmanuel Macron's state visit to the UK.

Watch video of French police destroying a boat in the English Channel in a rare and unusual intervention, which police have made clear is not a new tactic.

Some 70 lone children arrived on small boats on Wednesday, the most in one day, a Kent council says.

Seventeen coastguards have been charged by a Greek naval court over the deadliest migrant boat disaster in the Mediterranean Sea for a decade.

Those rescued include a child and their mother, who were airlifted to hospital in France.