UN High Commissioner for Refugees refutes home secretary’s claim that most are ‘economic migrants’ Numbers coming from Afghanistan, Syria continue to climb LONDON: The UN’s refugee agency has rubbished UK claims that 70 percent of people arriving by small boat across the English Channel are “single men who are effectively economic migrants,” The Guardian reported on Thursday. Home Secretary Priti Patel has pushed the idea that it is overwhelmingly single men seeking work who make the crossing, repeatedly referring to them as “migrants.” However, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said those arriving should be considered asylum seekers or refugees. “Based on currently available Home Office data, the UN considers a clear majority of those recently arriving to the UK are likely to be refugees,” a spokesperson said. “Refugees and asylum seekers are not, and should not be described as, ‘migrants.’ Access to asylum should never be contingent on mode of arrival or nationality. “Equally, the only way to establish whether people are refugees is through a fair and efficient determination of their claims, for which the UK has a clear responsibility.” The UNHCR’s comments come as the numbers coming from Afghanistan and Syria continue to climb. Its intervention comes as Home Office staff begin sending out the first formal letters to those who arrived by small boat that they will be sent to Rwanda. For those abandoned in Afghanistan, the UK’s position has not deterred them, with almost as many arriving in the first three months of 2022 as over the whole of last year, with a similar growth rate for Syrians. Asked to justify the assertion that 70 percent of the 8,500 who made the crossing in 2020 were economic migrants, Patel said data showed that 87 percent were men and 74 percent were aged 18-39. She did not provide any evidence relating to the success of asylum claims. An analysis of new government data showed that 77 percent of the men, women and children who arrived by small boat were likely refugees and would be allowed to remain if their claims were assessed. Between the start of the year and April 14, some 4,850 people reached the UK by small boat, over 250 percent more than the same period in 2021.