Gareth Fuller/PA
The number of migrants crossing the Channel is up 13 per cent compared with this time last year, figures show.
Some 1,335 people arrived in the UK after making the journey from France in January, according to provisional Home Office data.
This is compared with the official monthly total of 1,180 recorded in January 2023, analysis of the figures by the PA news agency shows.
On Wednesday, 278 people made the journey in six boats.
The total for January 2024 is just slightly lower than the number of arrivals in the first month of 2022 (1,339), figures show.
That was the highest January total since records began in 2018 and marked the start of a year when a record 45,774 people crossed the Channel.
Earlier this week Downing Street said there were “variations” in the number of crossings taking place but it was “too early to say what the trend is for this year”, when asked whether Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was on track to achieve his pledge to “stop the boats”.
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