More than 8,400 migrants and refugees travelled on small, sometimes makeshift boats to reach Britain's shores in 2020.
Thousands of people successfully made the journey to the UK - but many also drowned in the sea.
Men, women and children travelled across the ocean using desperate measures - including dinghies, kayaks and even a paddling pool.
The Home Office has been accused of using "hostile rhetoric" and squandering taxpayer money to make the routes "unviable".
It remains unclear whether crossings will be limited in 2021 - despite another agreement being signed with French authorities in November.
The Press Association reports at last 8,417 people were successful in reaching the UK in small boats last year.
Figures peaked in September, which saw around 1,951 crossings - more than the entire total for 2019.
A single day record was reached on 2 September - with 416 people reaching the UK on a compromised boat.
August saw crossings almost every day - with more than 1,200 migrants and refugees reaching Britain.
In October there was an outcry of grief and fury after a Kurdish-Iranian family - including their young children - died when their boat sank off the coast of France.
Boats were intercepted by Border Force or landed on the UK's beaches more than 630 times last year - with at least one crossing every three days.
Home Secretary Priti Patel - who had vowed that crossings would become an "infrequent phenomenon" by spring 2020- blamed the "lefty lawyers" for defending "the indefensible".
Speaking at last year's Conservative Party conference, she also vowed to overhaul the "fundamentally broken" asylum system in the country - to make it "firm and fair".
The Home Office has also received military assistance to limit crossings, with RAF planes and an army drone in the sky to watch over the English Channel.
Ms Patel was criticised by Bella Sankey, director of humanitarian charity Detention Action, who said millions of taxpayer cash had been "squandered on the unicorn of 'unviability'".
She said: "The Home Secretary's record on asylum in 2020 is one of failure and denial.
"Her proposals for 2021 would breach the Refugee Convention and will see millions more wasted in unnecessary litigation as she tries to defend the indefensible.
"If Priti Patel would only agree to meet those with an understanding of these issues, rather than using her platform to attack them, she could reduce the chaos and start to deliver competent and compassionate policy-making instead."
Stephen Hale, chief executive at Refugee Action, said: "The men, women and children clinging to dinghies in the Channel are desperate to find safety.
"After fleeing war and persecution they yet again put their lives on the line because there are so few safe and legal routes to seek refuge in the UK."
He called for the government to "urgently create safe and legal routes" for people to seek sanctuary in Britain.
Immigration minister Chris Philp said the Home Office is taking action "at every level" and claimed that "more dangerous and illegally-facilitated crossings are being prevented than ever before".
Mr Philp added that the government is increasing surveillance and introducing new technology to "stop these crossings for good".
SOURCE: Sky News
