Refugee Rights Europe

2021

Abstract: Over recent years, and particularly in 2020, there has been an increased political and media frenzy regarding an increase in small boat crossings across the English Channel. Despite the broad media coverage of this issue, however, the primary policy response from the UK government has appeared woefully uninformed and short-sighted. This report presents a brief timeline of key aspects of the UK government’s policy response to small boat crossings, between December 2018 when the issue first started to become increasingly covered by media outlets, and December 2020, when Britain officially exited the European Union. It summarises key developments in terms of this migratory route and the corresponding UK governmental response.