"...but this conceit that people would kill themselves to get to Britain rather than stay in France is ludicrous. "
But that is exactly what they are doing. They are in a safe country where they can apply for asylum or residency or whatever. They have escaped the alleged horrors of their country of origin. The threats that they faced earlier no longer exist. They have no need to further risk their lives and there is nothing ludicrous about that. They simply want to get to the UK and the main reason for that is they know that once here they will be fed, watered, medically treated if necessary and, in time, given considerable assistance to live their lives here. Furthermore, once here there is very little chance indeed of them being expelled. These benefits also feature in most other European countries but life for illegal immigrants is a little harder in many of them.
Just what is this "bigger picture" we need to look at. As far as I can see these people come from fairly disagreeable places that have little or no chance of improvement in the foreseeable future. Their safety may or may not be in jeopardy but that is the reason they say they have left. Well, in France or Belgium (or Greece or Italy for that matter) their safety is no longer in jeopardy.
What the big picture really portrays is that some mainland European nations need to put their houses in order. Angelino Alfano, Italy's Interior Minister says his nations is the "world champion" of welcoming illegal immigrants. The Italian navy has been involved for some time in "Operation Mare Nostrum" which was set up to pluck illegal immigrants out of the drink as they head from Africa. Unfortunately for the rest of Europe Italy is also champion at passing those people on to other European nations. In the 2013 76,000 asylum application were made in Germany, 61,000 in France and 45,000 in Sweden. In Italy (the world champion) just 23,000 applications were made despite more than 120,000 illegals landing there. Mr Alfano now wants £88m from the EU to continue his operation.
It is unfortunate that some European nations are geographically closer to trouble spots than others. But that's bad luck and they should patrol their borders properly and resist the temptation to welcome invaders.