A United Nations official has suggested Britain’s 40,000 small boat arrivals are nothing.
Filippo Grandi, the outgoing head of the UN refugee agency who is leaving his post at the end of December, said the UK’s 41,000 arrivals this year represented a small number compared to what other countries faced.
During an interview with Australian actress Cate Blanchett on BBC‘s Radio 4, he added that Britain should be able to accommodate for this number of refugees each year.
He said the figures for this years small boat arrivals were the equivalent of the ‘daily arrivals’ of asylum seekers in countries such as Chad.
However, Mr Grandi, 68, did admit the asylum systems in the West needed ‘to be organised much better’, including deporting those who do not qualify.
He said: ‘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”.’
The UN official added that British and other Western politicians need to make a greater effort to ‘support’ their own populations to improve attitudes towards migrants.
He believes failure to do so was where ‘the propaganda that people come to steal jobs and threaten values and undermine security’ came from.
Filippo Grandi (pictured), the outgoing head of the UN refugee agency who is leaving his post at the end of December, said the UK’s 41,000 arrivals this year represented a small number compared to what other countries faced
Mr Grandi also told Ms Blanchett that the right to seek asylum is ‘under threat around the world’ and criticised Western governments for cutting funding for his agency.
The Italian diplomat, who was elected as the UNHCR high commissioner for refugees in 2016, also blamed past Conservative governments for fuelling public hostility around migration by creating a sense of ‘chaos’ around the topic.
He said: ‘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.’
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood recently revealed plans to overhaul the immigration system, including making refugee status temporary.
One of the changes will see an end to guaranteed financial support for refugees, meaning those who have assets may have to fund their own housing.
Ms Mahmood also announced that the Government will create new ‘safe and legal routes’ for genuine asylum seekers to come to the UK.
It comes as further doubt was cast on Labour’s promise to ‘smash the people smuggling gangs’ as the number of small boat arrivals surpassed 41,000 this year.
The latest Home Office figures showed some 803 people made the dangerous journey across the English Channel in 13 dinghies from northern France, starting overnight on Friday and into Saturday.
The total number of Channel crossings for 2025 now stands at 41,455 people. The annual record stands at 45,755, recorded at the end of 2022.
Crossings on December 20 alone reached 1,075 – the highest number reached in one day since October 8 – with images showing a Border Force vessel brining people thought to be migrants into Dover after an incident in the Channel.
A group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to the Border Force compound in Dover, Kent, from a RNLI Lifeboat on Saturday, December 20, 2025
It also appeared to be a record number of crossings for a day in December in seven years, when compared with data stretching back to 2018.
It is not, however, the largest total across the month of December compared with previous years.
This followed a busy night, in which a large number of boats were witnessed leaving the shores of France.
Last week, a video emerged of French police throwing tear gas at migrants as they tried to launch a small boat in the town of Grand-Fort-Philippe, near Calais.
December is traditionally one of the quietest months for Channel crossings, with a combination of low temperatures, poor visibility, less daylight and stormy weather making the journey particularly difficult.
The most arrivals recorded in the month of December is 3,254, in 2024. Some 2,163 people have arrived across the month so far this year.
Fisherman Matthew Coker said earlier this month it was ‘farcical’ to claim Labour was getting on top of the problem. The lull in crossings in November, he said, was simply due to a prolonged period of strong winds and waves in the Channel this month.
‘I’ve only had three [fishing] trips in the last 28 days – and they were quite rough,’ he said.
‘There has been no weather at all where a migrant boat would have managed to cross in the last 28 days. When the weather has allowed, there’s been massive numbers [of migrants crossing].
‘It’s just as well we didn’t have a fine end of the year, like we did last year, otherwise they would have been in real trouble with their numbers.’
The Government, meanwhile, continues efforts to grasp the so-called ‘upstream’ causes of the migration crisis, including through work with neighbouring countries.
Just this week, Germany passed a new law which could see people smugglers face up to 10 years in prison for trying to bring migrants to the UK.
The law change, which will come into force before the end of the year, aims to give more powers to law enforcement and prosecutors, and boost information sharing between the UK and Germany.
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said: ‘This major change in German law is the result of our close partnership working to tackle illegal migration and organised immigration crime.
‘We will continue to ramp up our international co-operation to strengthen our own border security.’
French police clashed with migrants on Saturday morning as they attempted to launch a dinghy in the small town of Grand-Fort-Philippe
France has meanwhile recently indicated it plans to halt small boats at sea before they pick people up heading for the UK.
A Home Office spokesman said: ‘The number of small boat crossings are shameful and the British people deserve better.
‘This Government is taking action. We have removed almost 50,000 people who were here illegally, and our historic deal with the French means those who arrive on small boats are now being sent back.
‘The Home Secretary has announced the most sweeping reforms to tackle illegal migration in decades, removing the incentives that bring illegal migrants to the UK and scaling up the return of those with no right to be here.’
