By comparison, only 10,000 migrants attempted to reach Britain in 2020.

52,000 migrants attempted to cross the English Channel to Britain last year, according to provisional immigration statistics released by the Home Office on Thursday. A “record”, according to Beauvau.

This number is five times higher than in 2020, when 9,951 migrants attempted to reach British shores.

A political crisis

Among these 52,000 exiles, more than 28,000 managed to cross to the English side, three times more than in 2020, when some 8,400 illegal arrivals were recorded. The number of rescue operations also tripled in 2021, with 1,002 migrants rescued at sea and sheltered in Calais.

The migration crisis between France and Great Britain has turned in recent months into a political crisis between the two countries. Tensions notably erupted in broad daylight after the death of 27 migrants in a shipwreck last November.

Despite the political crisis between Paris and London on this issue, France issued more than 96,000 residence permits to British nationals last year due to Brexit, according to provisional immigration statistics from the Ministry of the Interior.