'We know of the Channel deal, it won't stop us': Migrants in Calais say they're not worried about Keir Starmer's new swap scheme with France

Daily Mail​

11-07-2025

Migrants waiting to cross the Channel yesterday laughed at the notion the Government's new deal with France would stop the boats.
Occupants of the main migrant camp had quickly heard word of the agreement between Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French president Emmanuel Macron that some dinghy arrivals in England would be sent back to France, and swapped for official asylum applicants.
But it did not seem like anyone was giving up on their dream yesterday.
In fact, the only people in northern France worried about the new migrants arrangement seem to be a growing band of mayors and local government leaders fearing that the Labour Government's plan 'will make the situation even worse'.
At the sprawling migrant camp amid bushes and waste ground near Grande-Synthe, close to Dunkirk, preparations for departures from the nearby beaches continued apace.
Many were buying supplies at the Auchan supermarket in the out-of-town shopping centre here.
As two Middle Eastern migrants walked past with a shopping trolley stuffed with new life-jackets, Somali men Abdi, 22, and Mohammed, 19, were smiling and full of confidence about starting new lives in England.
They had no fear about being sent straight back after making the illicit dinghy crossing they are expecting to pay £1,300 for.
Abdi said: 'We have heard that yesterday France and England make a deal that says if you are a migrant who goes by boat, and you have family in England, you don't come back to France. And I have a cousin and brother in London.
'Also, if you come from a problem country, where it's dangerous, like Somalia – because of [the terror group] Al Shabaab, and rival clans that will kill you if you want to marry the wrong woman – I think you aren't sent back. So I don't worry.'
Asked if he was nervous about his imminent dinghy trip – 'maybe tomorrow' – Abdi laughed, saying: 'I'm not scared. We were in a boat from Libya to Italy for four days. We'll be in England in five hours, and there they will help us.'
A similarly carefree Mohammed – who said he had a sister in Britain – added: 'In Italy we didn't have work or anything. In France we have to live outside and don't have anything.
'I think when we go to England, England will say, 'Welcome'. We will be able to learn, and study. See you in London!'
The Mail had been on Gravelines beach from first light yesterday, and saw a dinghy on the horizon heading across the Channel from Dunkirk, further to the east, straight to Dover.
A French patrol ship in the Channel disgorged a motor launch – but only, as usual, to shadow the migrant boat in case of danger, until a British Border Force ship could pick it up.
Another dinghy yesterday was reportedly launched from far south of Boulogne, on a beach close to Mr Macron's home in the smart holiday resort of Le Touquet.
It was a stark demonstration of the length of coastline used by people smugglers – which has extended over 100 miles.
And local authority leaders in the Calais area, whose taxpayers are unhappy about the migrants camping beside roads, and hiding in dunes, yesterday disputed claims that Sir Keir's new scheme would help.
Unlike the migrants, they do fear significant numbers of small-boat passengers will be sent back to France – and they will have to deal with them.
The mayor of Calais, Natacha Bouchart, led the chorus of disapproval, saying: 'I'm very angry, stunned, to see there was no consultation with those of us along the coast.
'We are going to find ourselves in a vice, because we are already struggling to manage the problem of crossings and arrivals. Now we will have to manage the migrants that the British Government chooses to return to France.
'And when we say 'to France', we don't mean 'to Paris, Marseille, or Le Touquet', we mean 'to Calais'.'
Hauts-de-Seine regional council covers Calais and most of the beaches from where the small boats head off to England – and its president Xavier Bertrand said the new deal 'will make the situation even worse'.
Referring to some 17 deaths in the Channel among small-boat passengers this year alone, he said the Channel would continue 'to become a maritime graveyard.'
And he called for a 'proper showdown' with the British over the ongoing crisis, adding: 'This one-for-one principle is a way for the British to choose their migrants.
'They will have the immigration they choose, and we will have immigration they impose.'
In Gravelines – where the Mail has witnessed multiple 'taxi boats', which pick up migrants already in the water, while police stand by barred from acting through fear of causing drownings – deputy mayor Alain Boonefaes said the scheme was unfeasible.
Referring to increasing disputes between people-smuggling gangs and penniless migrants, Mr Boonefaes went on: 'The residents are starting to get angry – some see campfires at the bottom of their gardens. Others have heard gunshots.'
Strikingly, however, he added that he had opposed a British proposal to put a barrier across Gravelines' broad canal to the sea, where many of the taxi dinghies are launched – because it could make a sea rescue missions difficult, and interfere with the activities of a sailing school.
With such disagreement over tactics, it is perhaps no wonder the migrants are laughing.