The Home Office has recorded the busiest December day for migrant Channel crossings on record as over 600 people made the perilous journey to Britain on Thursday.
It means more than 34,500 people have arrived in the UK across the water from France so far this year.
Figures show 609 people made the journey in nine boats as crossings resumed following an eight-day hiatus.
This is the highest number recorded in a single day in December since the Government began collecting the data in 2018. It is also the largest daily total since October 18, when 647 migrants arrived.
The latest crossings take the provisional total for 2024 to date to 34,582 people.
This is up 19 per cent on this time last year (29,090) but down 23 per cent on 2022 (44,821), which was a record high year for crossings.
Migrants braved freezing winter temperatures, with groups wearing life jackets pictured being brought ashore from a Border Force boat in Dover.
The figures suggest an average of 68 people made the journey per boat.
It was the first day of crossings since December 4 and was only the third day of activity so far this month, amid calmer weather conditions in the wake of storms.
Young men were among those seen being driven away from the Kent port town in coaches on Friday as crossings continued.
It comes after Germany pledged to tighten its law to make it easier to prosecute human traffickers charging tens of thousands of pounds to smuggle people across the Channel to Britain, as part of a new deal signed between the two countries on tackling immigration crime.
The move is expected to give German prosecutors more tools to tackle the supply and storage of dangerous boats being used by gangs.
The latest “Calais Group” meeting took place in London on Tuesday.
Ministers and police from the UK, Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands agreed a plan to tackle people smuggling gangs in 2025.
Meanwhile, the UK Government has suspended making decisions on asylum applications from Syrians following the collapse of the Assad regime.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper told MPs the move is under “constant review” as the UK continues to monitor a “fast-moving” situation.
