# Truth Hub Card **MYTH:** The small boats situation is a "national security emergency" requiring emergency measures. **REALITY:** Describing asylum seekers arriving in small boats as a "national security emergency" is inflammatory rhetoric designed to stoke fear, not reflect actual security assessments. In 2023, approximately 29,000 people arrived in the UK via small boats—representing just 0.04% of the UK's population and a fraction of overall net migration (745,000 that year). The UK's intelligence and security agencies do not classify Channel crossings as a national security emergency. Home Office data shows that the majority of those arriving via small boats are fleeing countries with serious human rights situations including Afghanistan, Iran, Eritrea, and Syria—people exercising their legal right under the 1951 Refugee Convention to seek asylum. Between 50-75% of small boat arrivals receive protection after their claims are properly assessed, confirming they are genuine refugees. This "emergency" framing is a deliberate political tactic that dehumanizes people seeking safety and justifies punitive policies that violate international law. It treats human beings fleeing persecution as threats rather than vulnerable people with legal rights. The language of "crisis" and "emergency" has been repeatedly used to justify harmful policies like the Rwanda scheme (ruled unlawful by the Supreme Court) and detention of families. Real emergencies require evidence-based responses—the evidence shows these are people in need of protection, and the UK has both the capacity and legal obligation to assess their claims fairly. The Refugee Council, British Red Cross, and UNHCR have all condemned the use of securitized language that obscures the humanitarian reality of forced displacement.