London - A senior United Nations official triggered outrage on Thursday by claiming that Britain’s response to the bedlam at Calais was “xenophobic”.
Peter Sutherland, UN special representative on migration, said he was amazed by the “absolute nonsense” being alleged over the scale of the crisis.
He said: “It is exaggerated beyond belief and it is calculated to inflame tensions in regard to the number of people coming into Britain.”
Mr Sutherland - a former Irish attorney-general - is the latest in a string of UN special representatives to lecture the UK on everything from benefits policy to human rights.
He told the BBC that demands for economic migrants to be kept out of the UK were “a xenophobic response to the issue of free movement”, adding: “In my opinion, the debate in the UK is grossly excessive in terms of Calais.
“We are talking here about a number of people - a relatively small number in the context of what other countries are having to do - who are in terrible conditions and have to be dealt with by France and/or Britain.”
Tory MPs said Mr Sutherland’s comments were “pathetic” and ill informed.
Andrew Percy said: “The best response assorted do-gooders in the UN can come up with, when the Government tries to secure our border and respond to the concerns the British people have, is to accuse ministers - and by extension the public - of xenophobia. It’s pathetic.”
Whitehall insiders say Mr Sutherland remains bitter at the Government’s refusal to sign up to UN demands for each EU country to take a quota of migrants. Home Secretary Theresa May was fiercely critical of the proposal earlier this year, saying it was vital to break the link between migrants being able to get on a boat in the Med and then, once they had made it to the EU, remain for the rest of their lives.
Mrs May also insists many of those making the journey are economic migrants and not genuine refugees.
Mr Sutherland, 69 - who stepped down earlier this year after a lucrative 20-year career at global investment bank Goldman Sachs - insisted the people crossing the Med were “in the main” genuine refugees, and Britain needs to do more to help.
He said: “Germany last year received 175 000 asylum applications. Britain received 24 000. We are talking here about between 5 000 and 10 000 people in Calais who are living in terrible conditions. The first thing we have to do collectively is to deal with their conditions.”
In 2012, Mr Sutherland said the Government was wrong to try to reduce immigration, suggesting its policy had no basis in international law.
Daily Mail