The number of migrants arriving in Britain by crossing the Channel in small boats has topped 25,000 since the start of the year, provisional figures showed Monday.

Almost half the total number of small boat migrants who have crossed the English Channel this year have arrived in the 11 weeks since Labour came to power, GB News can exclusively reveal. The revelation comes as the number making the illegal crossing from France has reached another sobering milestone.

Three migrants were dead and at least 25 other people were believed to be missing after their boat sank on Monday off the Greek island of Samos, state television reported.

Three people died on Monday and five were rescued when an inflatable boat carrying migrants sank off the coast of the Greek island of Samos in the Aegean Sea, police said.