THE government faced calls today to reverse border crackdowns and establish safe refugee routes after it was revealed that 2024 was the deadliest year on record for Channel crossings.

A new report by the Refugee Council shows that at least 69 people lost their lives trying to make the perilous journey — more than the total of 59 recorded between 2019 and 2023.

It notes that the government “seems to have accepted” that enforcement efforts have made journeys more dangerous, yet has failed to announce measures to improve search and rescue. 

The report calls for increased funding for rescue efforts, safe routes including the piloting of a refugee visa, and the tracking of fatalities, as there is currently no official data on deaths. 

The Home Office unveiled new laws today granting law enforcement greater powers to target suspected smugglers, allowing them to bypass the Crown Prosecution Service and apply for orders such as travel bans directly at the High Court. 

The measures are part of a wider crackdown in which Labour has launched a beefed-up Border Security Command, and sought lessons from the likes of Italy’s far-right PM Giorgia Meloni, who has signed a deal to send asylum-seekers to detention centres in Albania. 

Care4Calais CEO Steve Smith said that the Labour government “appears determined to repeat all the same mistakes that led to these unnecessary deaths.

“We speak to the refugee community in northern France every day and every person we speak to tells us they wouldn’t cross the Channel if they had a safe route to claim asylum in the UK.

“It’s time politicians got out of their bubble, met and listened to people with lived experience of our asylum system, and acted — if they did they would immediately ditch the costly, ineffective and deadly border deterrents and instead introduce safe routes.”

Tim Naor Hilton, chief executive of Refugee Action, said: “Hostile border policies based on securitisation simply push people to take more dangerous routes and will ultimately lead to more people losing their lives. 

“Successive governments have taken a racist approach to refugee protection because they treat people differently depending on where they have come from. 

“This is racial injustice. Instead of trying to build fortresses we must focus on tackling the drivers of displacement, increase safe routes, and secure people’s right to claim asylum.”

Civil Service union PCS general secretary Fran Heathcote said the Channel deaths were an “avoidable tragedy.

“This government must now put human life first and introduce safe routes so that refugees can reach the UK without risking their lives.

“Going after people smugglers is welcome, but they only profit from this dangerous trade because the government refuses to open safe routes — as PCS has repeatedly called for.”