Ninety migrants cross Channel on Christmas Day
Ninety migrants crossed the English Channel in two small boats on Christmas Day. The crossings were the first recorded since Dec 21 and took the provisional total for migrants making the dangerous journey from France this year to 45,756.
Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, has promised legislation in the new year to help tackle the situation by ensuring that someone who enters the UK illegally does not have the right to stay.
Ministers are also working to tighten immigration rules to curb the number coming to the country legally.
Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, has drawn up a plan that would target foreign students, make it harder to bring spouses to the UK and increase the minimum salaries for companies employing skilled workers, The Times reported.
Under a draft of the proposals seen by The Times, the Government would increase the minimum income threshold for British citizens applying for a family visa.
Currently a couple must earn at least £18,600 and may need thousands more for any children they seek to bring to the UK. The plans could also make it harder for overseas students to bring dependents with them.
Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister, has previously suggested the rules around student dependents are “ripe for reform” and is concerned that people are coming to university as a “back door way of bringing their families into the UK”.
