The illegal migration crisis is still raging in the UK and the EU, the world’s media report. At the risk of their lives and health, people from Africa and the Middle East are arriving en masse on European shores on inflatable boats.
700 migrants arrive in UK in a single day
On Sunday, 703 people crossed the English Channel on 11 small boats, the highest number since the Labour Party came to power, the Home Office said on Monday.
According to the data, a total of about 1,172 migrants arrived in Britain last week in 20 small boats. It is also the highest daily figure since the Labour Party won the general election on July 4.
The highest number in a single day in 2024 was on June 18, when 882 people crossed the Channel, and the second highest was 711 on May 1. On Sunday, two people were found dead after a boat carrying migrants attempted to cross the Channel from the French port of Calais to the UK.
More than 18,300 migrants have arrived in the UK on small boats this year, compared with nearly 30,000 people who entered the UK in this way last year.
79 migrants land on Lampedusa
Seventy-nine migrants landed on Lampedusa on Sunday night to Monday after two boats carrying migrants were rescued by Italian security services.
A total of 421 people arrived on the Sicilian island on Sunday on 12 separate boats. The first boat, rescued overnight by financial police, was carrying 60 passengers from Bangladesh, Egypt, Pakistan and Syria.
The passengers said their boat had left from Carabolli in Libya and that they had paid between $4,000 and $7,000 for the crossing. The other boat with migrants was carrying 19 people who had sailed from Sabratha, Libya. The migrants from Bangladesh told rescuers they paid up to $9,000 for the crossing.
All of the arrivals were taken to the island’s hotspot, where 524 people are currently being held.
Authorities in the Sicilian town of Agrigento have ordered 280 people in the local hotspot to be transferred to a ferry to the Sicilian town of Porto Empedocle, where they are expected to arrive on Monday evening.
