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Earlier this year the government announced a series of measures to tackle people smuggling, including new criminal offence of endangering the lives of others at sea with a jail term of up to five years, expected to come into effect this year.

A Home Office spokesperson said: "We all want to end dangerous small boat crossings, which threaten lives and undermine our border security."

They said the government's plan includes "tougher enforcement powers, ramping up returns to their highest levels for more than half a decade and a major crackdown on illegal working to end the false promise of jobs used by gangs to sell spaces on boats".

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp described the figures as a "national disgrace."

"This news underlines what we all knew - Keir Starmer has lost control of our borders," he said, adding: "The gangs are laughing, the boats keep coming, and taxpayers are left to foot the bill".

In response, a Labour spokesperson said 8,325 people crossed the Channel in a 10-week period from July to September 2021, during Philp's time as immigration minister, "and we didn't hear him calling those figures a national disgrace".

International migration and the education sector – what does the current evidence show?
Whether it be the number of children requiring school places, the attainment of pupils or the number of teaching and support staff in schools, the impact and contribution of international migration on the education sector is a topic of high public interest. Explore what the current evidence shows for your local area using our interactive tools.

1.Main findings
International migration and its impact and contribution on the education sector is a complex topic. The data available to investigate it are limited and within the existing data sources, there is not a consistent way to measure international migration. However, using the best available indicators of international migration, covering state-funded primary and secondary schools in England, we can get some insights.

The main driver of changes in the demand for school places is the number of children being born, rather than the recent international migration of children; however, international migration affects the number of births, and births to non-UK born mothers have increased over the last 20 years.

In January 2018, approximately 7% of children in state-funded primary schools and 10% in state-funded secondary schools in England were born outside the UK; these data are a useful indicator of the impact of people moving to the UK on pupil numbers, but they do not give the full picture of international migration as there is no information on children who have left the UK.

Analysis of attainment data from the Department for Education shows that pupils with English as an additional language (EAL) have slightly lower attainment levels than first language English pupils at age 7 years, but this difference no longer exists by age 16 years; the analysis also shows no evidence of a relationship between the proportion of pupils with EAL in a local area and the overall level of pupil attainment.

International migration contributes to the workforce in schools, with around 12% of school staff in England born outside the UK in 2015 to 2017; this varies greatly across the country, from 4% in the North East to 31% in London.

Courtesy: Office of national Statistics - Census 2021 (Becca Briggs)