At least 66 people have arrived on the Kent coast aboard two boats, completing the first crossings of the Channel this year.
Tuesday’s latest arrivals come after more than 28,300 people crossed the Dover Strait on small vessels in 2021, three times the number for 2020.
Last year’s record number, an increase of about 20,000 on 2020, came despite the UK government promising millions of pounds to French authorities to tackle the issue.
Border Force and French boats were active in the Channel on Tuesday, as attempts to cross the dangerous waters renewed. Photographs taken from the Kent coast showed a small child wearing a pink onesie being carried ashore.
Tim Naor Hilton, chief executive at Refugee Action, claimed the UK government’s failure to provide safe routes for refugees will only lead to more deaths.
He said: “People will continue to cross the Channel in flimsy boats, and smugglers will continue to profit, unless ministers open up more routes for refugees to claim asylum here.
“[In November] we saw the deadly result of their strategy of keeping people out rather than keeping people safe, when at least 27 people died near our coast.
“And yet the government wants to legalise this dangerous and callous policy in its anti-refugee bill, which will only lead to more people drowning. It must wake up and scrap this bill now.”
At least 28,395 people reached the UK on small boats in 2021, according to analysis by the Press Association.
The busiest month for arrivals was November, when at least 6,869 people reached the UK.
On 24 November, an inflatable dinghy capsized in the Channel, causing the deaths of 27 people, including a seven-year-old boy and a pregnant woman.
Despite collecting its own data on small boat crossings, the Home Office refuses to release annual figures, which are instead compiled daily by journalists.
Home Office minister Tom Pursglove said: “Seeking asylum for protection should not involve people asylum shopping country to country, or risking their lives by lining the pockets of criminal gangs to cross the Channel.”
He said the government is “reforming” its approach by “making the tough decisions to end the overt exploitation of our laws and UK taxpayers”.