More than 150,000 migrants have arrived in the UK after crossing the Channel in the last seven years.

According to a PA News Agency analysis of government figures on Friday, 150,243 people have made the journey since the current records began on January 1, 2018.

The milestone was reached when 407 people crossed the Channel in 10 boats on Boxing Day.

On Christmas Day, more than 450 people crossed the Channel in 11 boats.

It came after Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the government had a moral responsibility to tackle Channel crossings but refused to set a deadline for when a target to see the numbers fall “sharply” would be met.

Ms Cooper said that the UK must go after the gangs behind the dangerous crossings during a visit to Italy, where she met the country’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, to discuss migration.

The Home Secretary faced questioning from the Commons Home Affairs Committee, which she previously chaired, and seemed to dismiss the idea of creating more safe and legal routes for asylum seekers to prevent channel crossings.

While the UK would always need to do its bit, this was not an “alternative to going after the criminal gangs,” she said.

She also told lawmakers that she was determined to keep making progress on reducing the number of hotels being used to house asylum seekers, saying they were completely inappropriate and extremely costly.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has put international cooperation with law enforcement agencies in Europe at the heart of his bid to cut the number of arrivals.

More than 22,324 people had arrived in the UK after crossing the Channel since Mr Starmer took office when his Labour Party won the election in July.

He previously stated that his government inherited a challenging situation with number of migrants in the first half of the year.

He attributed this to the previous focus on the Rwanda gimmick, a policy aimed at deterring asylum seekers rather than addressing the root cause of the issue, which is the gang involved in human trafficking.

But “if the boats and the engines aren’t available, it obviously makes it much more difficult for these crossings to be made.”

He had previously vowed to “treat people smugglers like terrorists” as he announced extra funding for his border security command.

Setting out his “plan for change” in December, the prime minister repeated promises to cut immigration but stopped short of setting any targets.

Immigration did not feature in the six milestones he announced so that voters could hold our feet to the fire.

So far this year, 35,898 migrants have arrived in the UK after crossing the Channel, provisional Home Office figures show.

This is up 22 per cent on this time last year but down 22 per cent in 2022.

Meanwhile, the National Crime Agency said it is leading about 70 live investigations into organised immigration crime or human trafficking.

Some 50 people have died while trying to cross the Channel this year, according to incidents recorded by the French coastguard, in what is considered the deadliest year since the crisis unfolded.

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has also reported several more migrant deaths believed to be linked to crossing attempts so far in 2024.

The number of migrants crossing the Channel has steadily increased since 299 people were detected in 2018.

(dpa/NAN)