Home Office · Immigration system statistics: illegal entry routes summary tables

Small boat arrivals

Year ending June 2026 Provisional

33,374people

Small boat arrivals were 33,374 people in the year ending June 2026, down 22.9% (9,935) from 43,309 in the year ending June 2025.

▼ 22.9% · −9,935 against Year ending June 2025 (year on year)

Home Office count
Year ending June 2026
published 27 August 2026
IER_01
row “Small boat arrivals”
column “Year ending June 2026”
cell value 33374

The series is falling. Rule: down 19.5% from 2025 to Year ending June 2026.

2018 to Year ending June 2026

Published valueProvisional or revisedLatestOne point a year is drawn; the source publishes overlapping year-ending figures, and every one is in the history table and CSVShaded bands: governments (see labels)Hover or use arrow keys to read a value

Breakdowns

What this measures

The number of people detected arriving in the UK by small boat across the English Channel in a 12-month period, as finalised in the quarterly Immigration system statistics.

People often confuse this with

Small boat arrival ≠ Asylum decisionSmall boat arrivals are people detected crossing the Channel. Almost all claim asylum, but an arrival is not a claim, a claim is not a decision, and a decision is not a grant. The Home Office publishes each stage separately.

What this doesn’t measure

People who crossed undetected, people prevented from crossing by French authorities, or arrivals by other irregular routes such as concealed in vehicles or with inadequate documents.

Important caveat

Detected arrivals via illegal routes are official statistics in development, not accredited official statistics. They count people the Home Office detected; undetected arrivals are not included. Small boat figures here are the finalised quarterly series and can differ slightly from the weekly transparency data. Data for 2026 Q1 onwards is provisional and will be revised.

Revision history

No period of this series has been revised since it was first ingested here. Revisions are recorded automatically when a later release publishes a different figure for the same period.

Source

Publisher: Home Office
Publication: Immigration system statistics: illegal entry routes summary tables
Release: Year ending June 2026, published 27 August 2026
Source file: illegal-entry-routes-to-the-uk-summary-jun-2026-tables.ods
File SHA-256: 247cdb26e11953ce73a88589c9edc9ade531328a5f97b75c56abf612217c293f
Retrieved: 4 September 2026
Sheet: IER_01
Table: IER_01
Row: Small boat arrivals
Column: Year ending June 2026
Cell value: 33374
Geography: United Kingdom
Unit: people
API: /api/metrics/small_boat_arrivals · /series · /vintages

Government periods

Change during each government, from the level inherited to the last complete period before it left office. Describes the period; does not attribute cause.

Labour 2024–	29,4372023	33,374Year ending June 2026	↑ 13.4%
Conservative 2019–2024	2992018	29,4372023	↑ 9,745.2%

Full comparison with chart

Release: Year ending June 2026 · publication page
Last updated: 27 August 2026
Next scheduled release: 26 November 2026 (official date)