Small boats were back in the English Channel on Thursday after three weeks of storms kept the route shut, with GB News reporting that about 150 people had crossed or were crossing by Thursday morning — the first arrivals since October 7. The Home Office normally publishes each day's official count the following day, so Thursday's figure is a reported one, not yet the official tally.

20,935People arrived by small boat in 2026 up to October 28 (Home Office)
43%Fewer arrivals than the same period in 2025 (36,954 — Home Office)
3,800People waiting in two camps near Calais and Dunkirk — French estimate cited by the Border Security Commander
213,545Total small-boat arrivals since 2018 (Home Office)

No arrivals were recorded from October 8 to October 28, Home Office figures show. The last crossings before the gap were on October 7, when 119 people arrived in two boats. Crossings this year are running well below last year's pace, but officials say the build-up of people waiting on the French coast has grown, not shrunk, while the weather kept boats ashore.

Source: GB News and Home Office figures, via Breaking Brexit News

Border chief's warning: 3,800 waiting, and a mass-casualty event is 'only a matter of time'

Britain's Border Security Commander, Major General Duncan Capps, told Parliament's Home Affairs Committee on October 21 that French estimates put almost 3,800 people in the two main camps in the Calais-Dunkirk area — "almost double what we would normally expect" against a usual level of about 2,000. He warned that boats are getting larger and more crowded — one boat this year carried 230 people — and said it was "only a matter of time till we have a mass casualty event in the Channel". Officers had joined French counterparts to pull 168 people from one vessel in French waters with no drownings, which he called "quite an extraordinary thing". Capps said increased French beach patrols have cut launches from the old spots, so smuggling gangs have moved: new launch points now include Belgium and Normandy, the latter a crossing of nearly 60 nautical miles. "If people try that in the winter, we are going to have loss of life," he warned.

Now launching from Belgium

On Thursday a migrant dinghy styled in green, white and red — reported to have been custom-made to match the Kurdish flag, complete with a sun in the middle — was spotted off the Belgian coast with dozens of people aboard as men struggled to start its engine. Belgian police officers watched from nearby but did not intervene, according to the reports. People-smuggling prices have reportedly fallen to as little as £840. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said: "The boats are now launching from Belgium. The Belgian authorities, like the French, are just standing and watching." He added: "This boat is even custom-made to match the Kurdish flag. The gangs are laughing at us."

Source: London Business News, via Bytes Europe

The resumption came a day after Chancellor John Healey defended the government's record, saying Labour is doing a "good job" on migration, and backed £150 million — yaani about 15 crore pounds — for a small number of large asylum sites. Asylum hotels are being replaced by large sites under the government's plans, while official forecasts reported this week suggest net migration could climb again in the coming years. For now, the official test comes on Friday, when the Home Office publishes Thursday's confirmed crossing count.