Record number of asylum seeking children on small boats

A record number of lone children have arrived on small boats and gone into the care of Kent County Council (KCC) in a single day, the BBC has learnt.

KCC received 70 new unaccompanied asylum-seeking (UAS) children on Wednesday – a record high, according to the council.

Another lone 48 children arrived on Thursday on small boats from France, the council says.

However, it follows a drop in the overall number of arrivals during the first six months of this year compared with the same period in 2024, which the council says may be attributed to adverse weather conditions and more accurate age assessments.

Figures seen by BBC South East, show 705 children arrived into the care of KCC between January and June.

That compares with 1,165 arrivals during the same time period in 2024.

A spokesperson for the council said: “It is unclear why arrival numbers have fluctuated in this way, but a combination of weather and improvements in the accuracy of the initial age assessments by Border Force teams at the border, undertaken to identify UAS children to be referred into KCC care, will have had an effect.

“The weather in the first two winter months of 2025 was significantly worse than the previous year and KCC saw fewer new arrivals then.”

The council has warned that the sudden increase this week, if it continues, could lead to an overall increase in new referrals by the end of the year.

“Looking at the current record rates of arrivals it is possible the council could ultimately receive more UAS children this year than in 2024,” the KCC spokesperson said.

Nearly 20,000 people arrived in the UK in the first half of this year on small boats – up 48% on the first six months of 2024.

The latest figures show 2025 has seen the highest number of small-boat arrivals in the first six months of the year since data was first collected in 2018.

Tackling small boat crossings will be a key point of discussion when French President Emmanuel Macron visits the UK in the coming days, after Downing Street said last month the situation in the English Channel was “deteriorating”.

The French authorities are considering allowing the police or coastguard officials to intervene in shallow waters to try to stop so-called taxi boats which pick migrants up from the beaches.

One organisation that supports migrants in northern France has told BBC South East that it is seeing more lone asylum seeking children arriving in Dunkirk.

“We have seen a greater number of unaccompanied minors this year than last,” according to Celestin Pichaud, coordinator of Utopia 56.

“However, their profile has changed, the nationalities have changed. We are now seeing far more young Eritreans, Somalis and Sudanese and far fewer Afghan or Kurdish children,” he added.

KCC has an obligation to look after lone children when they arrive on small boats in Dover, and the National Transfer Scheme results in a number of the children then being moved into the care of other local councils across England.

For a number of years Kent has been caring for the highest number.

Over the last two years, the government has provided KCC with funding to establish five new reception centres.

But in March, the former Conservative leader of the council called for ministers to make further commitments to working with councils to build capacity across the county.

Earlier this year the Association of Directors of Children’s Services said the increasing numbers of arrivals in gateway authorities, such as Kent, had created unprecedented demand on their services and that local authorities needed more support.

The Home Office has been approached for a comment.