Small boat crossings halted by gusty conditions despite sunny start to spring

4 April 2025, 13:28 | Updated: 4 April 2025, 17:20

Gusty conditions have seen the number of small boat crossings in the Channel plummet over the past week.

Despite balmy spring weather with sunny skies and temperatures in the high teens Celsius, no migrants arrived in small boats from Europe for the week between 28 March and 3 April.

This is down to the windy conditions between Great Britain and France, according to a Home Office source.

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Images appeared to show people crossing on Friday.

The start of 2025 has seen the highest number of people making small boat crossings at the start of the year since records began in 2018, with almost 6,500 people making the trip - roughly 1,000 more than this time last year.

Sky News weather producer Kirsty McCabe noted that it was "particularly" windy in the Channel on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week.

"Both Calais and Cherbourg have reports of mean wind strengths of 15mph to 25mph with gusts to 32mph," she added.

"It's a similar story from Lydd Airport on the Channel coast and Alderney in the Channel Islands."

Wednesday 2 April was the windiest with 35mph gusts.

"However, it must be noted that these locations are all on the coast and winds offshore would have been stronger," she added.

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Close to 30,000 people have made the trip across the Channel since Sir Keir Starmer became prime minister last July.

After taking office, Sir Keir scrapped the Conservatives' Rwanda deportation scheme and has since pursued a strategy of agreeing deals with countries where migrants come from to try and stop movement "upstream".