//Then we must count our blessings that we have never been in a situation where a potentially lethal boat ride appears more attractive than our current situation.//
Then that's another reason why they are not like me, Andy. Their current (i.e. pre-embarkation) situation is that they are in an EU country, free from danger and persecution. They have the facilities available to them to formally apply for asylum (and indeed some of them may have done so and been refused). But they don't like it there; they'd prefer to be here. That is not a basis on which to claim asylum as a refugee. They are not desperate, they are determined, which is an entirely different thing.