More than 5,000 migrants have crossed the Channel in record time this year, heaping fresh pressure on ministers to end the crisis.

Some 341 people made the journey in six boats on Thursday, bringing the provisional total for the year so far to 5,025.

It is the quickest the number of arrivals has surged past 5,000 since the small boats phenomenon began in 2018.

Last year, 5,000 arrivals was passed on March 31.

The cumulative number of arrivals so far in 2025 - 5,025 - is 24% higher than at this stage in 2024, when the figure stood at 4,043, and 36% higher than at this point in 2023 (3,683).

The highest number arriving in one day this year so far stands at 592 people, crossing the Channel in 11 boats on March 2.
The latest figures come after the French coastguard confirmed two migrants died in two days trying to cross the Channel on Wednesday and Thursday.

One person died after being pulled from the water while the other person died after trying to cross in an overloaded boat, despite rescue efforts to save them.

The UK signed a "road-map" agreement with France earlier this month aimed at bolstering co-operation to tackle people smuggling across the Channel.

The Government's new Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill also continues through Parliament with plans to introduce new criminal offences and hand counter terror-style powers to police and enforcement agencies to crack down on people smuggling gangs.

A Home Office spokesperson said: "We all want to end dangerous small boat crossings, which threaten lives and undermine our border security.

"The people-smuggling gangs do not care if the vulnerable people they exploit live or die, as long as they pay. We will stop at nothing to dismantle their business models and bring them to justice."

A migrant died on a dangerously overcrowded dinghy which had been shadowed by the French navy for hours.

The French coastguard was alerted to "many" migrant boats attempting to launch overnight.

The rescue ship, Ridens, followed a dinghy packed with about 40 asylum seekers from a beach in Dunkirk to another pick-up point near Gravelines, where dozens more climbed on.

Emergency crews were then forced to rescue three people who had fallen into the water and 12 more who begged to be evacuated.

One of those lifted from the boat was unconscious, taking the death toll in the Channel this year to as many as nine, according to charities in France.

The boat then shockingly continued to Britain with around 80 people on board.

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: "Labour has lost control of our borders and people are dying as a result.

"If Labour had allowed the Rwanda removal deterrent to start last July as planned, these crossings would no longer be happening.

"But instead, crossings are up 28% since the election and people are dying.

"The French should also be intercepting these boats on or near the shore.

"It is shocking that France is allowing boats with illegal migrants to hop along the shore picking people up and then travel across the Channel - allowing that to happen simply attracts even more migrants to the Calais area."

The use of "taxi-boats", where smugglers quietly launch the boat in a canal or quieter part of the beach and then pick up larger numbers of migrants down the coastline, has surged in recent months and has been linked to a soaring death toll.

This tactic has prevented French police from blocking asylum seekers from climbing onto a boat because their laws claimed this could endanger lives.

Another migrant died on Wednesday after being rescued from the water when another dinghy got into difficulty off a French beach.