BRITAIN’S Border Force chief has quit after just 18 months over failures to reduce numbers of illegal immigrants crossing the Channel in small boats.
Martin Hewitt will step down this week from the post of Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Commander, which he has held since 2024.
His resignation comes after figures revealed that about 41,500 people crossed the English Channel in small boats in 2025, a 13 per cent increase on the previous year and the second-highest annual total on record.
Overall, almost 59,000 people have entered the UK as illegal migrants in small boats since Mr Hewitt took office.
Nearly all are young men from Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Syria, Albania and Eritrea, according to a recent report by the Migration Observatory of the University of Oxford.
Alp Mehmet of Migration Watch UK suggested that Mr Hewitt’s resignation proved the policies of Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, to end the small boats crisis were futile.
Mr Mehmet said: ‘So much for “smashing the gangs”. Hewitt’s departure is an admission that the Government’s flagship border strategy has failed on its own terms and with total Channel migrants entering Britain since 2018 now approaching 200,000, the need to get a grip has never been greater.’
A Home Office source told the Sun that Mr Hewitt, who has made a career from policing and crisis management, was being held accountable for the failures of the border force to stem the flow of illegal immigrants.
‘There was a view that the objectives were not being met, and there needed to be a tighter, more defined operational focus,’ the source said.
According to the Sun, Mr Hewitt has previously complained about the lack of support from the French amid ‘political instability’.
In October, he told the Home Affairs select committee that he was frustrated that French authorities remained reluctant to intercept boats at sea.
According to ITV News, no successor has yet been chosen to replace Mr Hewitt, so interim leadership arrangements are being put in place.
