More than 34,000 migrants have arrived in the UK so far this year after crossing the Channel, with 600 making the journey in the busiest December day on record.
Home Office figures show 609 people made the crossing on Thursday in nine boats.
This is the highest number recorded in a single day in December since data started being gathered in 2018. It is also the highest daily total since October 18, when 647 migrants arrived.
The latest crossings take the provisional total for 2024 to date to 34,582.
This is up 19% on this time last year (29,090) but down 23% on 2022 (44,821), which was a record high year for crossings.
Migrants braved the winter weather for the first time in eight days, with groups of people 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.
Downing Street said “of course these numbers need to be reduced” in the wake of the figures.
Cutting migration numbers and overhauling the “broken” asylum system was a “priority” for the Government, a Number 10 spokesman said, adding: “This is the chaos that this Government inherited.
“We put in place a serious credible plan to bring order to the asylum system by smashing smuggling gangs through our new Border Security Command, tackling the problem upstream with greater international collaboration and ramping up returns of those with no right to be here.”
It comes after Germany pledged to tighten its law to make it easier to prosecute people smugglers enabling Channel crossings to Britain, as part of a new deal signed between the two countries on tackling immigration crime.
ANNOUNCED: New agreement between European nations and security agencies to tackle people-smuggling.
— Home Office (@ukhomeoffice) December 10, 2024
🇬🇧🇩🇪🇧🇪🇫🇷🇳🇱 pic.twitter.com/T8NTW6b0qv
The move is expected to give German prosecutors more tools to tackle the supply and storage of dangerous boats being used in the crossings.
The latest so-called Calais Group meeting took place in London on Tuesday, with ministers and police from the UK, Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands agreeing 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 the “fast-moving” situation.
