How the EU Halved Illegal Migration – While Britain Got ‘Taken for Mugs’

The EU might not have “smashed the gangs”, but it has gone a considerable way towards “stopping the boats”. In the first eight months of this year, only 112,000 people crossed illegally into Europe, down 21 per cent from 2024 and 52 per cent from the same period in 2023.

That marks a staggering turnaround from 2015, when 1.3 million migrants applied for asylum in the 28 member states of the European Union, Norway and Switzerland.

It is one that will no doubt be viewed with envy by politicians in Britain, where figures are going in the opposite direction and polls suggest that immigration and asylum have overtaken the economy as the most important issues for voters.

Indeed, small-boat crossings have soared to record high figures this year – as have asylum claims. The picture in the EU, meanwhile, looks very different – owing to a carrot and stick approach, which has seen countries incentivised to help with the crackdown, and beefed-up border policing. Illegal migration via two of the three main routes into the Continent has plunged in the past 12 months, and asylum claims in the bloc fell by 23 per cent in the year leading up to June 2025.

Although many experts are sceptical about the EU’s figures, pointing out high levels of undetected migration, the raw data certainly suggest that Britain could learn a lesson or two from her neighbours. Signalling that it is serious about the crisis would be a start, say experts.

“I found it very puzzling that the first thing Sir Keir Starmer did as Prime Minister was to scrap the Rwanda scheme [which was originally Denmark’s idea],” says Dr Rakib Ehsan, senior fellow at the Policy Exchange think tank and the author of its 2023 report entitled “Small-Boats Emergency”. “That decision gave the impression that the new Government was a pushover regarding illegal immigration.”

While asylum seekers in Denmark and Sweden are given cash incentives to leave voluntarily, Britain has been criticised for spending lavishly on hotels and healthcare for migrants. “It makes Britain the El Dorado for illegal migrants,” says Ehsan. “There will be people in other European countries who can’t quite believe the generosity shown towards those who enter the UK without permission.”

The French have long argued that Britain’s liberal labour market is also part of the problem. In July, Emmanuel Macron accused the UK of attracting migrants through generous welfare payments and easy access to undocumented work, echoing complaints made by several of his predecessors.

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“…there’s no reason why the UK Government couldn’t impose much tougher sentences on anyone knowingly employing illegal migrants [the current maximum is five years’ imprisonment]. We are also being restrained by our own legislation, such as the Modern Slavery Act, which needs to be talked about a lot more.

“We also need to look more closely at the culture within our judiciary, where there are blatant examples of judicial activism. There is a tendency to side with the rights of the individual – even foreign criminals. But collective security – maintaining social cohesion and minimising the risk of crime – needs to be prioritised too. In that wrestle between freedom and security, we need to lean that bit more towards security.”

Still, critics argue that many of the techniques deployed by the EU to achieve its reduction would be difficult, ill-advised or even unconscionable for the UK to copy.

For example, the bloc was able to reduce asylum seekers through the Balkan route by 78 per cent in 2024, partly by dangling the carrot of EU membership in front of countries such as Serbia and Montenegro in return for tougher border controls and closer visa alignment.

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As The Economist reported last month: “The EU has now proved the thesis that harsh policies can reduce illegal migration. The genie is out of the bottle.”