Refugee chief sensationally claims Channel migrant disaster is not that dangerous | Politics | News | EUROtoday

The Channel migrant disaster is just not as dangerous as many are suggesting, the top of the UN’s refugee company has sensationally claimed.

Filippo Grandi mentioned the virtually 40,000 small boat arrivals within the UK in 2024 have been the equal to every day arrivals in some international locations across the World.

It comes after a French border chief expressed comparable sentiments.

Around 41,000 migrants have crossed the Channel this yr, resulting in claims efforts to cease small boats are failing.

Mr Grandi claimed politicians have been partly guilty for detrimental public attitudes in the direction of migrants.

He mentioned: “There is nothing that creates a hostile environment as [much as] a badly organised welcome, and unfortunately we’ve seen that.

“In the UK, the small boats and the challenges of dealing with these people and some of the choices that were made – and that the Government is trying to correct – have conveyed the wrong impression that this brings chaos.”

Mr Grandi mentioned the 36,816 individuals who crossed the Channel final yr was equal to the “daily arrivals” of refugees in international locations akin to Chad.

He mentioned immigration in Western nations wanted “to be organised much better”, and that this included sending again individuals who didn’t qualify for asylum.

“When this doesn’t happen, people say there’s no leadership in this chaos, it’s dangerous, let’s listen to those who say, ‘Push back, build walls, don’t rescue people at sea’.”

It comes after Xavier Delrieu, head of the Office for the Fight towards the Smuggling of Migrants, mentioned the variety of small boat crossings to Britain “is not huge”.

He mentioned: “There were 636 successful crossings in 2025 compared with 633 last year. It’s not huge. On the other hand, the number of migrants is 39,000 that managed to cross while we were at 36,000 in 2024, because there are many more migrants per boat, on average 62 in 2025 against 53 last year.

“To date, with police stress on the seashores, 58% of crossings are prevented, regardless of 200 days of beneficial climate.

“If one day we get to 80%, it will become much less profitable for these networks.”

Mr Delrieu additionally advised native paper LaVoix Du Nord: “The phenomenon of taxi boats spoils these good results a little, which is why we must make a maximum of interceptions to harm this traffic. If we can, we’ll be more efficient.” Asked if the England-France border is just too weak, he mentioned: “We can’t let all the migrants go to England either.

“In 2018, the small boats didn’t exist, it was the Iranians who created this follow.

“In 2020, it developed with the health crisis. The networks could no longer pass by truck and they fell back on the small boat, they saw that it was profitable, with a success rate of up to 70% at the beginning.

“The Kurds acquired their fingers on the sector as a result of they have been probably the most superior on this crime, it allowed them to make massive earnings instantly, they usually stayed on it.”