No hiding of data on daily migrant arrivals in boats

Since the crisis of migrants arriving without prior permission in boats across the English Channel kicked off in 2018, the government has been forced to release figures on daily arrivals.

But now the UK government is reported to be planning to stop the publication of daily figures on arrivals via this illegal route.

Reported arrivals rose from just under 300 in 2018 to 28,400 in 2021 and are continuing to increase further in 2022.

Censoring data on daily reported arrivals would amount to hiding the truth from the public.

It would make it harder to hold the government to account on behalf of tens of millions of people who are anxious about our uncontrolled borders.

In the midst of the Channel boat scandal, the share of the public who think the government is handling immigration poorly rose by an astounding 38 percentage points since March 2020 and, in mid-January 2022, was at 76% (including over three-quarters of the government’s own voters!) - YouGov.

It’s no wonder Ministers and senior officials are keen to hide the truth on these illegal Channel crossings.

But they must put the brakes on this plan to cover up the daily data.

Hiding it would encourage disinformation and spur an even greater crisis of confidence in the state of the UK's immigration control and border security.