Watch as a leading Hungarian researcher into migration laughs at Britain as it struggles to grapple with the ongoing small boat crisis.

Migration has drastically declined in Hungary since more than one million people entered the country in 2015.

The Hungarian Government put up border fences and tried to stop many from crossing, a move that prompted hefty fines from the European Court of Justice.

Speaking to Steve Edginton for GB News’s Inside Hungary’s Border War documentary at the MCC Feszt, Viktor Marsai from the Migration Research Institute giggled as he was asked about Britain’s troubles.

Marsai laughed at the suggestion Britain is unable to deal with the crisis

“It’s not easy to cope with illegal migration”, Mr Marsai admitted.

“But the main question is whether you really want to stop it or not. The first thing is the message. One important thing is the message. It’s very clear that when Donald Trump became US President, the number of illegal crossings on the southern border declined sharply.

“The general narrative is that people are escaping from war, the cartels, drug war, poverty, so these people have to cross the border because they will be persecuted.

“When a government won the election and was very strict on migration, suddenly the numbers dropped. When Covid-19 happened, there was strict border control. There was no stricter borders, migrants waited in Libya just decided to wait.

Marsai spoke to Steve Edginton on GB News

“If you are waiting in Libya, it means you are not in imminent danger. It’s legend that you can’t cope.”

Mr Marsai then explained what Hungarian policy is when a migrant crosses the border.

“The protocol is very clear since 2020”, he said.

“The Hungarian Government followed a safe, third-country concept, which means that it opens the border for people who are coming directly from countries where there is armed conflict and sending them back if they are crossing a safe third country where there’s no persecution and no war.”

Sir Keir Starmer’s party is facing growing pressure to tackle the small boats crisis | GETTY

He added: “The example is, the war in Ukraine. Hungary immediately opened its border for refugees from Ukraine. If we go back to the spirit of the Geneva Convention, the original in 1951, it’s clear that these people who are coming from Afghanistan and Syria across the Hungarian border, they’re not refugees.

“They are refugees if Syrians are crossing over Turkey, but they are asylum shoppers. Why are they crossing other countries without detection?”

Meanwhile, a new milestone was reached yesterday when 107 individuals crossed the Channel in a single inflatable vessel, surpassing the previous record of 96 passengers. The unusually large dinghy was intercepted and brought to Dover, where Border Force and law enforcement officials examined it.

This development challenges Labour's commitment to dismantle trafficking networks, particularly following the Prime Minister's decision to abandon the Rwanda deportation programme shortly after taking office.

The scheme had been designed to deter Channel crossings by redirecting asylum claims to Rwanda.

Monday saw 474 people arrive via small boats, contributing to a total exceeding 50,000 since Labour assumed power.

The emergence of these larger vessels suggests traffickers are adapting their methods despite Government pledges to combat smuggling operations.

Bulgarian authorities intercepted twenty inflatable vessels at the Kapitan Andreevo border crossing on Sunday night, preventing their intended use for Channel crossings.

The eight-metre boats were discovered in a lorry heading to the Netherlands following intelligence shared by the National Crime Agency and Home Office International Operations.

Each vessel could have transported approximately 60 people, potentially facilitating 1,200 illegal crossings.

This marks the second significant interception within three weeks at the same checkpoint, which serves as a crucial transit point exploited by smuggling networks.