text: Record migrants cross Channel but numbers are dwarfed by unauthorised people in UK – The Hit Network
  But Sky News analysis of the last three years of complete Home Office data shows those arriving in small boats – who generally claim asylum – are only a small fraction of the number of migrants arriving in the UK each year.
  But, these estimates help to contextualise the number of migrants we often see arriving on Kent's beaches.
  Professor Andrew Jolly, lecturer in social work at the University of Plymouth, told Sky News: "It's more likely that people become undocumented or have an irregular migration status because they came to the UK legally, perhaps on a visa, and then overstayed the length of that visa."
  'If I have £1 I buy chicken and chips' – The life of an irregular migrant
  In his mid-20s now, he has had spells in college and work but is trapped in the UK's asylum system so cannot get his own home and moves between friends' houses. He is currently launching another appeal against his status, but cannot work as a result.
  "It's like I'm stuck, I can't go forward, I'm very sad," he told Sky News' communities correspondent Lisa Holland.
  "My life is too hard, I don't have any paperwork and when I go for a job they need that."
  Mumin said he could not return to Afghanistan, even before the recent Taliban takeover, and has lost touch with his family. He helps in a butcher's shop where a friend gives him food and pocket money.
  "I want to be a good businessman in the future and get my own house and own business, but I don't have any money. If I have £1, I buy chicken and chips.
  "It's too sad, I'm thinking all the time, 'why is this happening?' – I came with a couple of guys in a lorry and they have status now and I have nothing.
  "I want a good life here and to enjoy my life here, a normal life. People say the UK is a good life but for me I'm still not set up so my life is very hard."
  Dr Peter William Walsh, a researcher at the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford, said: "It is difficult psychologically to live in a country without immigration status, there's always that fear.
  "You hear a knock at the door, 'is that them?' It's an entirely unenviable position."
  The government's immigration plans
  Home Secretary Priti Patel recently closed a consultation on a plan to overhaul the UK's immigration system in a post-Brexit world in which it would be a criminal offence to enter the UK without permission.
  The plan would also see asylum seekers who arrive via legal routes have more entitlements than those who have arrived illegally, who will only be granted temporary refugee status – if successful – and face being removed.
  The plan is very much focused on asylum seekers and clandestine entries but unauthorised migrants become so through many different ways not mentioned in the new plan. In fact, "undocumented", "unauthorised" or "irregular" appear nowhere in the consultation.
  Dr Walsh said: "Policy needs to be made in accordance with the evidence, but just because there's a lack of evidence doesn't mean it's not right for the government to legislate as they can do so on other grounds – on something theoretically plausible.
  "It's entirely possible that good policy can be made even with a paucity of evidence.
  "The big policy change here is that the government proposes to penalise asylum seekers who have entered the country illegally and from countries that the government deems to be safe to try to deter these irregular arrivals on paper.
  "That makes intuitive sense, but whether or not that's good policy will remain to be seen."
  Image: Unauthorised Chinese migrants from across the UK went to get COVID-19 vaccines in London's Chinatown as no ID was required
  Junior Home Office minister Chris Philp told the Commons in May: "By its very nature, it is not possible to know the exact number of the illegal population and so we do not seek to make any official estimates on this.
  "The government's New Plan for Immigration will make it harder for people to enter and live in the UK illegally, whilst ensuring that those who do have the right to reside in the UK can do so.
  "The vast majority of people leave the UK on time, in line with the expiry of their visa or leave to remain. However, those who have no right to remain in the UK and do not return home voluntarily should be in no doubt of our determination to remove them."
  In January 2020, a study by the Institute for Community Research and Development estimated "there were likely to be 674,000 irregular individuals in the UK at the beginning of April 2017, including non-UK born dependants."
  "Our estimates further suggest that the numbers of undocumented individuals are increasing, but at a slower rate than the foreign-born population as a whole," it added.
  Prof Jolly said: "The evidence is the population of undocumented migrants is increasing, and UK laws that try to prevent people coming to the UK in the first place increases the number of undocumented migrants.
  "Making it more difficult for people to cross the Channel in small boats won't necessarily make too much of a difference as the numbers of people crossing are relatively small compared with the whole UK population.
  "I think the focus of the new legislation is perhaps misplaced and actually might make it more likely that people become undocumented."
  Can irregular people gain 'regular' status?
  It is possible though, with irregular people able to remain on Article 8 human rights grounds – they have developed a family life in the UK and it would be a breach of human rights to split up the family.
  "That doesn't happen automatically, that has to be applied for – and the Home Office has to respond to that and decide," Prof Jolly said.
  "Lots of UK-born children who have got an irregular migration status, they don't necessarily know that they're undocumented until they reach a crisis point or if they reach the end of their education and maybe want to apply for university.
  "Then if they are not able to apply for benefits, student finance or aren't allowed to legally work, then they realise that actually, they don't have leave to remain in this country.
  "And that can last for their whole childhood. If they don't know well into adulthood that leaves them in this kind of limbo."
  They can face deportation to their parents' country of origin, which could be somewhere they have never been or do not know the language, which can have a huge impact on their wellbeing and identity.
  Since 1 July this year, EU, Swiss, Norwegian, Icelandic and Liechtenstein citizens have needed official immigration status in the UK – which they had to apply for under the EU Resettlement Scheme.
  "That's likely to be a sizeable population," Prof Jolly said.
  "We don't know how many that is yet, but local services, charities, faith communities and local authorities are likely to be seeing the effects of that over the next year or two."
  On Mumin's case, a Home Office spokeswoman said: "Sky News refused to provide us with any details to be able to investigate this individual case.
  "The government is committed to ensuring asylum claims are considered without unnecessary delay but some cases can be more complex and take longer to process.
  "Nobody should be making these illegal and potentially life-threatening journeys to the UK. Our New Plan for Immigration seeks to welcome those who come through safe and legal routes whilst preventing the abuse of the system and the criminality associated with it."
  Data to estimate the size of each category comes from the Home Office – statistics relating to exit checks, asylum applications figures and the New Immigration Plan report – and the Institute for Community Research and Development's report "London's children and young people who are not British citizens: A profile".