More than 29,000 migrants have arrived in the UK so far this year after crossing the Channel, including 500 in a single day.

Home Office figures show 509 people made the journey on Thursday in 11 boats, taking the provisional total for 2024 to date to 29,154.

This is 10% higher than the 26,501 recorded this time last year but 24% lower than the 38,129 people making the journey at this stage in 2022.

Cumulative arrivals of people crossing the English Channel in small boats
(PA Graphics)

The latest crossings mean nearly 1,000 people have arrived in the space of three days so far this week.

It comes as the French coastguard said it rescued 76 migrants in three boats on Thursday after they called for help when they got into difficulty while attempting the journey.

They were taken back to Calais but several other people on two of the boats refused assistance and, according to a translation of the coastguard’s statement, the decision was made to allow those remaining to continue their journey given the dangers of them being injured or falling overboard if crews intervened.

The rescue comes just a day after three migrants died, with dozens of others rescued, when a boat sank while trying to reach the UK and only a week after a baby died in another similar incident.

The French coastguard – who has reported 48 migrant deaths so far this year – repeated warnings of how dangerous the journey is through the waters known as the Dover Strait, the narrowest part of the English Channel and the busiest shipping lane in the world.

More than 600 ships pass through it every day and the weather conditions are dangerous even when the sea seems calm, with 120 days of winds greater than or equal to a Beaufort scale force seven seen on average per year, the body said.