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Dear Friend,

2022 saw the highest number of detected small boat crossings to the UK since records began. These hazardous journeys across the English Channel on tiny craft packed with people are a huge risk for those embarking on them. There are frequent media reports of drownings, many involving children, but no official statistics of the numbers who have died attempting to cross exist.

Despite the tragedy unfolding along our coast, the details around small boat arrivals remain confused; who is crossing, why they come, whether they should, and the impact on the UK’s communities and public services. These are all things that the public needs to know but politicians are failing to provide an accurate picture. How can we make up our minds on one of the most politically volatile and divisive issues of our time if we don’t have the facts? When an issue is so politically explosive, with the potential to sway the way millions vote, you deserve the truth.

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As the next general election draws closer, rhetoric, claims, and counterclaims around immigration are likely to ramp up. Those seeking our votes know what a divisive issue immigration is and will seek to outflank, discredit and expose their political opponents. Unfortunately, this creates an environment where misinformation can easily flourish.

It’s started already: like when the former home secretary Priti Patel claimed that 60% of last summer’s small boat arrivals were from Albania, or more recently when Labour MP Khalid Mahmood claimed there were no safe routes for people to enter the UK. Both statements are untrue, both have gone uncorrected despite Full Fact’s requests and both obscure the truth of what is really happening.

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With every false claim, with every piece of misinformation, with every repeat of the wrong numbers, the truth around small boat arrivals is pushed further into darkness. But Full Fact sheds light on the most important issues. We’ve written to the Home Office with our concerns about ministers making unevidenced claims and we’ve also raised the issue with the Office for Statistics Regulation.

The Home Office welcomed our scrutiny and told us it plans to establish ways to prevent these issues occurring in the future. Full Fact’s strong track record means we are taken seriously. Our team monitors what politicians say, challenges MPs and ministers when they get their facts wrong, and pushes for better processes within our political system to make it harder for misinformation to find a foothold.

For people making the perilous journey to our shores, small boat crossings are a matter of life or death. For the UK public they are a political issue. In a democracy, we the public are the ultimate arbiters of how to solve the challenges of immigration; who to welcome and who to turn away. We can only do that with accurate information. We can only do that if our politicians speak the truth. We can only do that thanks to the work of Full Fact.

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Thank you,

Josey Cullen
Full Fact

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