Thunder Bolt
Silly old bat
Oh no it's not. You need to look at the asylum stats on .gov.uk - extract for year ending March 2018:
"Of the 14,166 people granted asylum, protection and resettlement, 5,953 (42%) were children (under 18 years old).
Additionally, 5,874 Family reunion visas were issued to partners and children of those granted asylum or humanitarian protection in the UK"
Of those who claim asylum here only around 50% are granted so the number of applicants for asylum is therefore around 28,332 or more annually. The latest influx in migrants crossing the channel in small boats is new and has gone from a few to hundreds.
My sentence was referring to Channel crossings, so sorry if you misunderstood what I meant. JCFG was trying to say the boat crossings only applied to southern ports.