LONDON, UK

Nearly 700 migrants entered the UK by crossing the English Channel in a single day, a record for this year, the country’s Defense Ministry revealed on Tuesday.

Some 696 migrants in 14 small boats crossed the channel between France and the UK on Monday. The previous record was dated in April when 651 people made the journey.


Although French authorities stopped one of the boats carrying 35 people, its government has been blamed for not fulfilling its moral obligation in protecting vulnerable people and stopping smugglers from exploiting migrants seeking passage into the UK.


"France has a moral and international obligation to protect vulnerable people, save lives, stop people smugglers and tackle organised crime," Tory MP Natalie Elphicke said in a statement.


Elphicke, who is the representative of the port city of Dover – a major UK port and terminal destination for migrants arriving in the UK – said that the "small boats crisis must be a key priority of the next prime minister.”


The latest figure brings the total number of migrants to have arrived in the UK by crossing the channel in 2022 to over 17,000.


In 2021, as many as 28,526 people are thought to have made the perilous journey into the UK, an increase of 8,404 when compared to 2020.


In April, the government pushed forward a highly controversial plan that would see asylum seekers being sent on a one-way trip to Rwanda.


The plan attracted criticism throughout the UK from opposition parties and human rights organizations as well as from the international community, including the UN.


The new asylum scheme has been confronted by legal action and the government’s first flight to Rwanda was cancelled by a last-minute legal ruling in June.