Clear majority of people crossing Channel are refugees, says UNHCR

People are rescued in French waters while trying to cross the Channel to Britain in May. Photograph: Sameer al-Doumy/AFP/Getty Images

The UN refugee agency has said “a clear majority” of people arriving in the UK by small boats across the Channel should be considered to be refugees, in a challenge to the home secretary, Priti Patel.

Patel told MPs and peers last year that 70% of people making the crossing were “single men who are effectively economic migrants”, and the government has repeatedly referred to them as “migrants”.