Over 100,000 people now likely to have crossed Channel in small boats since records began
The number of people who have crossed the English Channel in small boats in the past five years is now likely to have passed 100,000.
Government figures show that since 2018, when records began, 99,960 people have made the perilous journey from France to the UK as of Tuesday.
With more than 40 people believed to have landed on UK shores on small boats earlier today, it is likely the 100,000 threshold has now been crossed.
The figures show a huge year-on-year surge, with just 299 small boat arrivals in 2018 compared with 28,526 in 2021 and 45,755 in 2022.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has made stopping the small boat crossings one of his five key priorities for his government.
But his plans for bringing down illegal immigration have been mired in difficulty and delay.
This week 15 people were moved on to the Bibby Stockholm barge after legal challenges prevented 20 others from being transferred to the vessel.
The accommodation, off the coast of Dorset, is ultimately intended to house 500 single men – though that is less than 1% of the people waiting for their claims to be heard.
People, believed to be migrants, were brought to Dover following a small boat incident in the Channel on Thursday
More than 40 people are thought to have arrived in the UK on Thursday having tried to cross the Channel in a small boat
As well as barges, the government wants to use tents and military bases as cheaper forms of accommodation than hotels, which the Home Office says are costing taxpayers £6m a day.
But Labour argues the new sites are being used in addition to hotels, not instead of, and ministers should focus on cutting the asylum case backlog and targeting people-smuggling gangs.
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What’s it like onboard the Bibby Stockholm?
The government ultimately wants to deport people who arrive by small boat to Rwanda, but the £140mn scheme has been stalled since last June due to a series of legal challenges, meaning no one has been sent to the east African nation yet.
Deputy Tory chairman Lee Anderson, who was embroiled in a row this week after saying migrants who did not like barges should “f*** off back to France”, admitted the government was failing on immigration.
The Bibby Stockholm is being used as an accommodation vessel for asylum seekers
However, cabinet ministers have defended the immigration strategy amid a series of Home Office announcements this week, such as a crackdown on immigration lawyers helping migrants “exploit” the system, and a new partnership with Turkey to disrupt people-smuggling gangs.
Central to the prime minister’s “stop the boats” pledge is the controversial Illegal Immigration Bill, which was passed last month after the government saw off multiple challenges in the Lords.
This will ban anyone who enters the UK through unauthorised means from claiming asylum, allowing the government to deport them.
Flashy, headline-grabbing policies are not stopping the boats
A grim yet inevitable milestone that the prime minister will have been dreading – the number of people crossing the Channel in small boats looks likely to have finally reached 100,000.
The timing of these figures will not have been lost on Rishi Sunak – it is “small boats week” after all.
Having already seen Tory party deputy chairman Lee Anderson this week undermine the government’s efforts to stop the boats – admitting his party’s immigration policy has failed – this week has certainly not gone to plan for the government.
But it’s numbers like these that underpin Mr Anderson’s frustrations.
With crossings having increased at an astonishing rate under 13 years of a Conservative government, despite their best efforts, the Tories will find it incredibly difficult to spin that this rise in crossings is on Labour.
What’s more is that these figures are in direct conflict with government rhetoric: talking tough and announcing policies to curb Channel crossings.
But the facts speak for themselves. Flashy policies like relocating people to Rwanda evidently aren’t working.
Rishi Sunak has asked voters to judge him on his record and delivery on his five pledges, but this particular pledge looks set to continue to cause him considerable political pain.
Officials are still working on when the legislation will come into force. Questions remain about whether the bill will comply with international law, and where people will be sent if their home countries are not safe and returns agreements are not in place.
Ministers have hinted at leaving the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), a treaty that underpins the country’s duty to help migrants, to better protect the UK’s borders.
Read More:
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‘F*** off back to France’ comment ‘shows Tory failings on immigration’
But reports on Thursday suggested Mr Sunak’s cabinet is split on the matter, as the move would put the UK at odds with the majority of European nations and could also cause complications over the operation of the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland and post-Brexit deals with the EU.
A Home Office spokesperson said on Thursday: “The unacceptable number of people risking their lives by making these dangerous crossings is placing an unprecedented strain on our asylum system.
“Our priority is to stop the boats, and our Small Boats Operational Command is working alongside our French partners and other agencies to disrupt the people smugglers.
“The government is going even further through our Illegal Migration Act which will mean that people arriving in the UK illegally are detained and promptly removed to their country of origin or a safe third country.”
Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin, marks their 50th birthday amid a year of rising institutional and geopolitical adoption of the world’s first cryptocurrency.
The identity of Nakamoto remains one of the biggest mysteries in crypto, with speculation ranging from cryptographers like Adam Back and Nick Szabo to broader theories involving government intelligence agencies.
While Nakamoto’s identity remains anonymous, the Bitcoin (BTC) creator is believed to have turned 50 on April 5 based on details shared in the past.
According to archived data from his P2P Foundation profile, Nakamoto once claimed to be a 37-year-old man living in Japan and listed his birthdate as April 5, 1975.
Source: Web.archive.org
Nakamoto’s anonymity has played a vital role in maintaining the decentralized nature of the Bitcoin network, which has no central authority or leadership.
The Bitcoin wallet associated with Nakamoto, which holds over 1 million BTC, has laid dormant for more than 16 years despite BTC rising from $0 to an all-time high above $109,000 in January.
Satoshi Nakamoto statue in Lugano, Switzerland. Source: Cointelegraph
Nakamoto’s 50th birthday comes nearly a month after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order creating a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and a Digital Asset Stockpile, marking the first major step toward integrating Bitcoin into the US financial system.
Related: Bitcoin at 16: From experiment to trillion-dollar asset
Nakamoto’s legacy: a “cornerstone of economic sovereignty”
“At 50, Nakamoto’s legacy is no longer just code; it’s a cornerstone of economic sovereignty,” according to Anndy Lian, author and intergovernmental blockchain expert.
“Bitcoin’s reserve status signals trust in its scarcity and resilience,” Lian told Cointelegraph, adding:
“What’s fascinating is the timing. Fifty feels symbolic — half a century of life, mirrored by Bitcoin’s journey from a white paper to a trillion-dollar asset. Nakamoto’s vision of trustless, peer-to-peer money has outgrown its cypherpunk roots, entering the halls of power.”
However, lingering questions about Nakamoto remain unanswered, including whether they still hold the keys to their wallet, which is “a fortune now tied to US policy,” Lian said.
Related: Bitcoin’s next catalyst: End of $36T US debt ceiling suspension
Is Satoshi Nakamoto wealthier than Bill Gates?
In February, Arkham Intelligence published findings that attribute 1.096 million BTC — then valued at more than $108 billion — to Nakamoto. That would place him above Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates on the global wealth rankings, according to data shared by Coinbase director Conor Grogan.
Satoshi’s new addresses. Source: Conor Grogan
If accurate, this would make Nakamoto the world’s 16th richest person.
Despite the growing interest in Nakamoto’s identity and holdings, his early decision to remain anonymous and inactive has helped preserve Bitcoin’s decentralized ethos — a principle that continues to define the cryptocurrency to this day.
Magazine: 10 crypto theories that missed as badly as ‘Peter Todd is Satoshi’
The United States stock market lost more in value over the April 4 trading day than the entire cryptocurrency market is worth, as fears over US President Donald Trump’s tariffs continue to ramp up.
On April 4, the US stock market lost $3.25 trillion — around $570 billion more than the entire crypto market’s $2.68 trillion valuation at the time of publication.
Nasdaq 100 is now “in a bear market”
Among the Magnificent-7 stocks, Tesla (TSLA) led the losses on the day with a 10.42% drop, followed by Nvidia (NVDA) down 7.36% and Apple (AAPL) falling 7.29%, according to TradingView data.
The significant decline across the board signals that the Nasdaq 100 is now “in a bear market” after falling 6% across the trading day, trading resource account The Kobeissi Letter said in an April 4 X post. This is the largest daily decline since March 16, 2020.
“US stocks have now erased a massive -$11 TRILLION since February 19 with recession odds ABOVE 60%,” it added. The Kobessi Letter said Trump’s April 2 tariff announcement was “historic” and if the tariffs continue, a recession will be “impossible to avoid.”
Source: Anthony Scaramucci
On April 2, Trump signed an executive order establishing reciprocal tariffs on trading partners and a 10% baseline tariff on all imports from all countries.
Trump said the reciprocal tariffs will be roughly half the rate US trading partners impose on American goods.
Related: Bitcoin bulls defend $80K support as ‘World War 3 of trade wars’ crushes US stocks
Meanwhile, the crypto industry has pointed out that while the stock market continues to decline, Bitcoin (BTC) remains stronger than most expected.
Crypto trader Plan Markus pointed out in an April 4 X post that while the entire stock market “is tanking,” Bitcoin is holding.
Source: Jeff Dorman
Even some crypto skeptics have pointed out the contrast between Bitcoin’s performance and the US stock market during the recent period of macro uncertainty.
Stock market commentator Dividend Hero told his 203,200 X followers that he has “hated on Bitcoin in the past, but seeing it not tank while the stock market does is very interesting to me.”
Meanwhile, technical trader Urkel said Bitcoin “doesn’t appear to care one bit about tariff wars and markets tanking.” Bitcoin is trading at $83,749 at the time of publication, down 0.16% over the past seven days, according to CoinMarketCap data.
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