ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - British government figures have shown that 1,193 migrants crossed the channel to the United Kingdom aboard 16 small boats between Thursday and Saturday, as at least three more dinghies set off towards the UK on Sunday, ending a three-week pause in crossings.
According to figures published by the UK Home Office on Sunday, 263 migrants arrived in three boats on Thursday, followed by 671 in nine boats on Friday and another 259 in four boats on Saturday. The figures are provisional and subject to revision.
The boat arrivals resumed after a 21-day period without recorded arrivals - the longest pause this year - as high winds and rough seas had made the dangerous journey across the English Channel more difficult. The latest arrivals come despite a significant overall decline in crossings compared with previous years.
The resumption coincided with a series of confrontations filmed on beaches in northern France, where migrants gather to board inflatable dinghies, often in large groups.
“I’ve spent months documenting crossings from France, but this is the first time I’ve captured a launch from Belgium,” a photographer operating under the name The Nowhere Photographer wrote on X on Thursday, sharing footage of a migrant boat departing a Belgian beach near the French border.
On Sunday, he reported that three more dinghies loaded with migrants had set out for Britain.
On Friday, the photographer posted footage from Hardelot-Plage that appeared to show a man brandishing a knife during a confrontation with another person aboard a dinghy.
“The migrant pulled out a large knife, approximately 6 to 7 inches long, and appeared to prepare to stab the man on the boat,” the photographer claimed.
The man appeared to drop the knife into the water before eventually climbing aboard the vessel.
British broadcaster ITV and the Press Association also reported the incident, describing footage in which a man holding a knife approached a dinghy while another person aboard attempted to strike him with a boot. A threat to kill someone could be heard during the confrontation, according to the reports.
The photographer, who regularly documents Channel crossings and openly opposes irregular migration, has also criticized French and Belgian authorities for what he describes as their failure to stop boats departing their shores.
One of the boats filmed leaving Belgium was painted in the red, white, green and yellow colors of the Kurdistan flag on Friday. The vessel, carrying approximately 25 men, drew criticism from British right-wing politicians, including Reform UK leader Nigel Farage. However, the nationality of those aboard and whether the boat reached Britain have not been independently established.
The renewed crossings have also increased political criticism of the British government's border policies.
However, Home Office figures cited by British media showed that arrivals in 2026 were approximately 43 percent lower than during the corresponding period last year and 29 percent below the comparable figure in 2024.
“We have made progress tackling the small boats. Crossings are down significantly,” a Home Office spokesperson said, according to ITV, adding that joint operations with international partners had prevented more than 50,000 crossing attempts since the current government took office.
The government has pledged to strengthen cooperation with French authorities and dismantle the networks facilitating irregular crossings.
Kurds from the Kurdistan Region are among those attempting the dangerous journey. In a report published last month, Rudaw documented the conditions faced by Kurdish migrants living in makeshift camps near Dunkirk, where people often spend weeks or months attempting to reach Britain.
“Even if it turns into a storm, we will still go [cross the sea],” one Kurdish migrant told Rudaw's Hevidar Ahmed during an attempted crossing in early October.
The journey has repeatedly proved deadly. In November 2021, a dinghy carrying migrants from northern France sank in the Channel, leaving 27 people dead and four missing, most of them Kurds. A French court convicted several smugglers in September over their involvement in the tragedy.
.webp&w=3840&q=75)
