“You know i expect” 🤣🤣 sounds like my old headmistress. We ignored her!
Gransnet forums
News & politics
Boats this month…
(259 Posts)Small boats data
This page shows figures for the last 7 days for migrants attempting to cross the English Channel in small boats without permission to enter the UK.
DateMigrants arrivedBoats arrivedBoats involved in uncontrolled landingsNotes
13 May 2026000
14 May 2026000
15 May 2026000
16 May 2026000
17 May 2026000
18 May 2026000
19 May 2026000
….because for some reason some posters have stopped talking about boats 
The face of Europe is changing. We should be helping people to stay in their own countries by way of giving money and expertise. If they had stable lives and secure jobs they wouldn’t want to come here.
Gran22boys
The face of Europe is changing. We should be helping people to stay in their own countries by way of giving money and expertise. If they had stable lives and secure jobs they wouldn’t want to come here.
Should not the countries they come from be doing this. Would we for instance give money to Iran or expertise to Afghanistan
sundowngirl
My 18 year old granddaughter and her friends went to Brighton to sit on the beach yesterday but had to leave as they were uncomfortable being watched by a group of young male immigrants from local hotels/HMOs
This is not 'sensationalising' - it is happening every day. Maybe not in Wales, but definitely in the South East
Some things never change. I remember in 1999 my daughter aged 16 being accosted by young male Kosovans in the town centre. That was the first time this had happened to her. They had just arrived as refugees. So this has been going on ever since but is getting worse with the increased numbers arriving.
Absolutely!
Absolutely. There shouldn’t be any undocumented people arriving in this country.
Girls and women should not be made to feel unsafe in their own country but its happening and is really wrong.
I believe we are up to 980 asylum seekers arriving over the weekend. Looks like they will smash the 1,000 estimation.
And just to add to the misery, this came up on my newsfeed yesterday.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3e2wzpe7xjo
This is the BBC not the Daily Mail (as other have said)
___________________________________
Heading:
Seven Afghan men charged over child sexual exploitation
Seven men have been charged with a total of 40 offences as part of an investigation into group-based child exploitation.
Norfolk Police said the men - six aged 20 and one aged 21 - were all Afghan nationals and were arrested on Wednesday following raids on six addresses in Norwich and one in Dumbarton.
The charges relate to two girls, aged in their early to mid-teens at the time of the alleged offences, and are said to have happened between August 2023 and May 2025 in Norwich.
All seven men spoke via interpreters to confirm their names, ages and addresses when they appeared before magistrates in Norwich earlier.
Police said the men's immigration status was "refugee".
Five of the defendants entered the country on small boats, according to the police.
One came to the UK concealed on a lorry and another arrived via a port
Chestnut
I'm shocked that people seem to think we are obliged to keep taking in more and more people from all over the world. When will it end?
Again, we have 70 million people here already and do not need any more. We have plenty of young people in the NEET group. Living on benefits should not be a choice, the choice should be education, employment or training, and if they are physically fit and don't know what else to do then a year of military service. Those young people need to be doing something. Encourage them to earn a living by doing the jobs that need doing. But don't give them the choice of doing nothing.
We’re not obliged but isn’t it just the human thing to do? The UK has been a draw for immigrants for centuries. Many of us wouldn’t be here without them.
Immigration isn’t the issue, numbers are going down. It’s decades of failure to invest in social housing and infrastructure by governments of all shades.
Basgetti - when do you think enough is enough, or do you believe that the whole of Africa can continue to migrate to Europe?
Should we continue to build more and more houses until there are no green spaces left?
Of course immigration is an issue
Basgetti
Chestnut
I'm shocked that people seem to think we are obliged to keep taking in more and more people from all over the world. When will it end?
Again, we have 70 million people here already and do not need any more. We have plenty of young people in the NEET group. Living on benefits should not be a choice, the choice should be education, employment or training, and if they are physically fit and don't know what else to do then a year of military service. Those young people need to be doing something. Encourage them to earn a living by doing the jobs that need doing. But don't give them the choice of doing nothing.We’re not obliged but isn’t it just the human thing to do? The UK has been a draw for immigrants for centuries. Many of us wouldn’t be here without them.
Immigration isn’t the issue, numbers are going down. It’s decades of failure to invest in social housing and infrastructure by governments of all shades.
It is a massive issue!
It is basic housekeeping and working to a budget!
If you cook a special meal for, say, your family of 4 and another 10 people turn up uninvited you haven’t got enough to go round. Same with people entering our country. It’s called overcrowding.
Primrose53
I believe we are up to 980 asylum seekers arriving over the weekend. Looks like they will smash the 1,000 estimation.
23 May 2026 287
24 May 2026 231
25 May 2026 77
These figures are a direct lift from the Small boats daily update on the Government website (weekend total 595)
Still waiting for the end of the month figures, which are far more relevant as a comparator.
Casdon
Primrose53
I believe we are up to 980 asylum seekers arriving over the weekend. Looks like they will smash the 1,000 estimation.
23 May 2026 287
24 May 2026 231
25 May 2026 77
These figures are a direct lift from the Small boats daily update on the Government website (weekend total 595)
Still waiting for the end of the month figures, which are far more relevant as a comparator.
My figures were from the same source but you did not include the 394 who arrived in 6 boats on the Friday of the Bank holiday weekend. Therefore the total is still 980 as I reported.
Remember also there will have been those who got into our country in lorries and hiding in car boots etc so the total could easily exceed 1,000.
To repeat, Friday was not a bank holiday. It is not complicated. If you had said in the last seven days, as there were no boats last week until Friday, and had included bank holiday Monday to make 8 days, that would have been almost accurate, 595 + 394 is 989. So, whichever way you cut it, the total number for the extended period did not ‘smash the 1000’ estimation.
The thread was specifically about small boats, so trying to inflate the numbers by adding a new variable is very questionable.
These posts are not achieving anything, let’s just aim to post accurate information in the first place, rendering response unnecessary. Better still, let’s wait until the end of the month and see if there has been an improvement on last year. For reference, there were 3738 arrivals by small boat in May 2025.
Being so pedantic also doesn't achieve anything.
Even if the numbers didn't 'smash' the 1,000 over the weekend, there are far too many boats and we have every right to be concerned.
What you call pedantic, I call accurate sundowngirl. It’s quite feasible for people to express their concerns about the small boat migrants without exaggerating or sensationalising.
Obviously the BBC news are also including Friday as they are reporting nearly 1000 arrivals over the Bank Holiday weekend.
And this from Sky News:
Almost 600 people crossed the Channel over the Bank Holiday weekend
Almost 600 people crossed the English Channel illegally over the Bank Holiday weekend, new figures show.
Data from the Home Office reveals one small boat carrying 77 people was found making the dangerous journey yesterday.
It follows 231 people being recorded as crossing on Sunday, while a further 287 travelled the same route via small boat the day before.
Yesterday was the fourth consecutive day where crossings were recorded, after a period where none were.
394 people crossed the Channel in six small boats on Friday.
The slight uptick in numbers will be a headache for the government, who have sought to show they are bringing overall numbers of people coming to the UK down.
Last Thursday, figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed net migration has fallen to its lowest level since 2021.
Meanwhile, overall numbers of small boat crossings are significantly down on where they were this time last year.
rosie1959
Obviously the BBC news are also including Friday as they are reporting nearly 1000 arrivals over the Bank Holiday weekend.
Thank you Rosie1959 sometimes it’s like being back at school on here! 🤣🤣
980 is a whole lot closer to 1000 than 0 and, as sundowngirl rightly says it is far too many.
Have you read the full article by any chance Primrose53?
Casdon
What you call pedantic, I call accurate sundowngirl. It’s quite feasible for people to express their concerns about the small boat migrants without exaggerating or sensationalising.
Accuracy and truth is just so last year! C'mon! Get with it! This year's zeitgeist is all about exaggeration and sensationalism.
Whatever!
Just said on the news 1100 people arrived on boats over the Bank holiday weekend.
Twaddle - remember what Oscar Wilde said about sarcasm
www.cps.gov.uk/south-east/news/migrants-charged-following-small-boat-crossings-during-bank-holiday-heatwave
Wow! A bit of progress at last 👏👏👏
Join the conversation
Registering is free, easy, and means you can join the discussion, watch threads and lots more.
Register now »Already registered? Log in with:
Gransnet »

