Nearly 37,000 migrants have reached the United Kingdom by small boats so far this year a figure already surpassing the total number recorded in 2024, according to new figures released by the Home Office on Thursday.

The data showed that 36,954 people crossed the English Channel from northern France to England’s southern coast between January and October 2025, compared with 36,816 during the whole of last year.

The surge poses a major challenge for Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who had pledged to “smash the gangs” of people smugglers responsible for ferrying migrants across one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.

Public anger over the crossings has intensified in recent months, fuelling the rise of Nigel Farage’s anti-immigration Reform UK party, which has gained ground in national opinion polls.

The record for small boat arrivals remains 2022, when 45,774 people made the perilous journey. However, government data indicates that in the first six months of 2025 alone, crossings rose by nearly 48 percent compared to the same period last year; a spike officials partly attribute to prolonged dry weather.

Images of overcrowded boats leaving French beaches, sometimes with police officers standing by, have deepened frustration among Britons who see the crisis as a test of border control.

According to the Home Office, most migrants who arrived between March 2024 and March 2025 were from Afghanistan, Syria, Eritrea, Iran, and Sudan.

French authorities, meanwhile, have argued that Britain’s lack of a national identity card system continues to attract migrants, as it makes it easier to find illegal work once in the country.