Record number of deaths in 2024 leads to call for safe and legal routes for people to travel to UK to stop them resorting to smugglers

The Home Office is facing calls to introduce 10,000 refugee visas in an effort to reduce the death toll from people crossing the Channel in small boats, after a record number of lives were lost in 2024.

The groundbreaking proposal aimed at stopping migrants from resorting to using smugglers is contained in a report published on Thursday by the Refugee Council, titled Deaths in the Channel – what needs to change.