Migrant Boat Crossings: Who is coming to the UK?

Since 2020 a 'greater mix of nationalities have been detected making the crossing', with Albanian and Afghan nationals 'becoming notably more common in 2022', the Government said.

The number of Afghans crossing the English Channel on small boats has increased since the Taliban's takeover of Kabul last year, making up just under a fifth of arrivals in the first half of 2022, Home Office figures show.

There were 2,066 arrivals of Afghans between January and June 2022, compared with just 247 in January to June 2021.

And over the whole of 2021 there were 1,437 Afghan arrivals, 494 in 2020, 69 in 2019 and three in 2018, the figures showed.

The Home Office figures also show that there were just over 5,000 applications for asylum from Afghans in the year to June 2022.

Afghans were the fourth most common nationality applying for asylum, after Iranians, Iraqis and Albanians.