French cops shrug & claim ‘it's difficult' as they stand & watch migrant family almost drown in bid to board small boat
The mum, dad and young children were among a group of asylum seekers who tried but failed to wade out to the dinghy in time.
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Fighting their way through currents, they returned in silence to the beach in Gravelines, around 15 miles east of Calais.
The family, believed to be from Eritrea, finally recovered enough to declare they would try again to clamber on to the estimated £1,200-a-spot 'taxi' to Britain.
Just feet away were the cops, watching with binoculars. They wore riot helmets and some carried shields and pepper spray.
Asked why they would not intervene when it was clearly so perilous, one officer simply told The Sun: 'It's difficult.'
The boat had been launched just before 5am further up the coast, and arrived to pick up the migrants.
A waiting crowd then ran out from the sand dunes.
French law enforcement have long said it is too risky to act once the boat is in the water — meaning the officers merely watched as the danger unfolded before missing the chance to arrest one of the smugglers.
The Sun saw the boat turn up.
First a large group of men scrambled aboard, followed by women and families with children.
One man appeared barely able to keep his head above water, as he desperately reached from the sea towards the dinghy.
Hull residents react to migrants living in iconic hotel
Others held on to each other as they fought to keep their kids out of the surf.
One cop kept an eye on the inflatable dinghy while four others stood chatting behind him.
Another began filming the incident on his phone, while a pal inhaled from a vape.
At one stage it appeared the boat was overloaded, with its engine either broken or not powerful enough.
But it eventually set off, leaving a group of around ten people without a place.
It momentarily paused, giving the desperate migrants a glimmer of hope, but by then the water was already too deep.
MAKESHIFT CAMP
A suspected smuggler who had steered the boat leapt out and made it to shore — leaving the passengers to negotiate the treacherous crossing alone.
He took the group who had missed out back to their makeshift camp, but the police had already left the scene.
He became aggressive when approached by The Sun.
The family who came close to drowning stayed silent when asked how they were and why they were prepared to take young children on the crossing.
They also did not respond when asked if they realised how dangerous the crossing was.
But asked if they would try again, a boy believed to be eight or under heartbreakingly admitted 'Yes'.
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Meanwhile another small boat was spotted setting off further down the coast, trailed by a French warship.
The two dinghies carried an estimated total of 150 migrants.
Photographs from Dover later showed many in life jackets being brought ashore after being intercepted by a UK Border Force patrol.
It is unclear if these were the same migrants we saw, or others who set off elsewhere from the France.
More than 15,000 people have illegally crossed the Channel this year, figures compiled by the Tories showed. This breaks last year's record of 13,489 arrivals in the first six months.
There have also been ten migrant deaths in the Channel this year.
Britain is paying France £476million for a deal which is supposed to see border commanders in Calais prevent crossings. But police routinely refuse to do anything once migrants are in the sea.
The Sun on Sunday last week told how French police union boss Fabien Vanhemelryck had been branded a hypocrite.
'HYPOCRITE' UNION BOSS
It emerged he had called migrants 'scum' and a 'pain' — yet was leading the charge against officers having to intervene.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp MP slammed a 'total loss of border control'.
He added: '2025 is the worst year ever for small boat crossings so far. While traffickers and criminal gangs rake in millions, Labour Ministers stand in Westminster rehearsing soundbites.'
The Home Office said: 'We have returned nearly 30,000 people with no right to be here and have driven up illegal working arrests by 42 per cent.
'We know more needs to be done with the French to build upon the 10,000 crossing attempts that we have stopped this year, and we are strengthening our cooperation to do this.'
They added of the Tory plan to process asylum seekers in a third country: 'The Rwanda plan was not a deterrent. It did not lead to one person being forcibly removed and cost the taxpayer £700million.'
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