New immigration data published today has only reinforced what many have known for some time – the current government strategy of ‘smashing the gangs’ to resolve the UK’s small-boats emergency is failing miserably.

There are growing signs that the impact of the Yemeni civil war and the Israel-Palestine conflict is spilling over into the UK’s small-boats emergency

Following the recent development that 50,000 small-boat migrants had arrived in the UK under the prime ministership of Sir Keir Starmer, the fresh immigration statistics reveal that in the year ending June 2025, there were 49,341 detected so-called ‘irregular arrivals’ – 27 per cent more than in the previous year. Nearly nine in ten arrived by crossing the English Channel on a small boat.

But what is especially alarming is the demographic breakdown of recent small-boat migrants who have arrived on Britain’s shores. It is safe to say that that we are not referring to migratory trends dominated by women and girls who are at serious threat of sex-based violence in warzones where rape is used as a weapon of war. From January to June 2025, 70 per cent of the 19,982 small-boat migrants who were recorded as arriving in the UK were males who were 18 to 39 years of age. During this time, the top five nationalities among small-boat migrants are the following: Eritrean,........

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