Mark White's Migration Monitor: The small boats crisis reached farcical proportions this week - and the next act looks even darker

On Wednesday, weather conditions eased just enough to allow the people smugglers to launch a few boats from the French coast.

By the end of that day, 220 migrants had made the illegal journey.

On its own, 200+ migrants crossing on a single day is unremarkable. But those migrants pushed the total number of arrivals for the year so far beyond the 36,815 who crossed from France during the whole of last year.

This milestone matters because it shows beyond doubt that, so far, Labour's Channel migrant policy is failing.

Any total for the year that was lower than the 2024 figure, no matter how modest, would have been seized on by the Government as a sign of progress.

Now their political opponents can honestly say that Labour has been unable to bring about any improvement in the numbers crossing.

More worrying for ministers is the fact that we still have two full months and a bit to go until the end of this year.

Authorities here have been fortunate that weather conditions over recent weeks have been pretty rotten in the Channel. Otherwise, we'd have passed last year's total at least a month earlier.

But even if November and December offer many more bad days than good, thousands more migrants will undoubtedly arrive in the UK before New Year.

Managing the news of this grim milestone is tough enough for the Government, without the added body blows of setbacks to some of their key policies.

The returns deal with France was already facing regular criticism from opponents over the minuscule number of small-boat migrants they've been able to send back across the Channel.

Now the news that one of the few they have returned has simply found himself another boat ride back to the UK is deeply embarrassing for ministers.

The Iranian man claims to be a victim of modern slavery, and his lawyers say he feared for his life over in France.

The Home Office has detained him and says it plans to return him to France at the earliest opportunity.

But his legal team are already attempting to resist that process.

On Thursday, the department faced fresh claims that another key agreement with Paris was in trouble.

For many months now, ministers have been talking up the 'game-changing' shift in tactics that French police were about to adopt — new operational tactics that would empower French maritime police to use their rigid-inflatable craft to push migrant boats back onto the beach in shallow waters.

French police unions are urging officers to have nothing to do with the tactic, for fear they won't be fully backed by politicians should someone be hurt during push-back operations.

The French Government, meanwhile, is deep in political crisis. Their focus is on domestic issues. The push-back policy is just not a priority for them at present.

The Home Office has sought to counter the claims that another key small-boats policy was sinking fast. We're told officials are continuing to work closely with the French to "review their Maritime Doctrine."

"We want to see the earliest possible deployment of these new tactics," the statement said.

I would simply point out, the Home Office was saying much the same back in April when the change in tactic was first announced.