Latest news with #Gravelines
Daily Mail
19-07-2025
- Daily Mail
ROBERT HARDMAN: Rocks, petrol bombs and cries of Allahu Akbar - and proof Starmer's new deal to stop the small boats is already doomed
Dawn has yet to break and the rocks are already flying, followed by blazing bits of rubbish. The French police in riot gear are doing their best to hold the line, launching tear gas at the 50 rioters who then turn their attention to the parked car belonging to Mail photographer, Roland Hoskins. With repeated cries of 'Allahu Akbar', they hurl a 20-litre plastic tank of petrol next to the car and then throw flaming projectiles at it in the hope it will explode. Roland runs out from behind the police lines, kicks the tank aside and manages to drive his car to safety as the battle rages on. This is not some lawless inner city sink estate. It is Gravelines, a sleepy (and, at 5am, sleeping) French seaside town which happens to be one of just 287 in all of France to boast the highest four-rosette rating in the nation's annual 'Ville Fleurie' contest for the prettiest communities. Right now, though, it is more like a jihadi war zone. And it's all because of a rubber dinghy. These rioters have been trying to launch an illegal inflatable and sneak 70 migrants across Britain, netting another six-figure sum for the human traffic gangs who despatch up to a dozen of these boats each day. The smugglers are currently enjoying their best year ever – with more than 22,000 illegal entries to the UK thus far. With this punctured boat confiscated and on the back of a police truck, the rioters finally concede defeat and vanish into the dunes (with no arrests). Sadly, though, yesterday's police victory was very much the exception, not the rule, as I have learned during my trip to Gravelines this week. The town is a pocket of old-world charm next to the vast industrial complex of Dunkirk. This year is the 85th anniversary of Operation Dynamo, the heroic evacuation of the British Army after the fall of France. Now, a new fleet of 'little ships' are back on the coast around Dunkirk performing exactly the same role, but with a very different clientele. They used to call these migrants 'les clandestines' back in the days when the smugglers hid them in the back of a lorry. There is nothing remotely clandestine about them any more. This is brazen lawlessness on an epic scale. Rewind to the same part of Gravelines the previous morning. I have been here for all of five minutes when an outburst of Middle Eastern shouting is followed by the 'thwup!' of a 30ft inflatable people-smuggling boat with a huge outboard engine being dropped in the water. The first passengers jump aboard. This is not happening on some remote stretch of windswept beach either. I am in the town centre on the banks of a canal between a main road and the smartest restaurant in Gravelines, L'Eclusier. It is too early for breakfast here but this £1,500-per-person boat will be in Dover in time for brunch, having stopped off en route at a nearby beach to pick up more fare-paying passengers, including plenty of Afghans (the current nationality du jour) plus assorted Vietnamese, Sudanese, Palestinians and Eritreans. They will include four women and two young children but this will be, overwhelmingly, a cargo of young male adults. 'We are all the world!' shouts one passenger, and he has a point. It's why this service has a new name, one which is instantly understandable in every language the world over. They don't call this a 'boat'. They call it a 'taxi'. To listen to last week's bullish tones at the Franco-British summit between President Macron and Sir Keir Starmer, you might imagine that sights like this were a thing of the past. We have been assured French police will now intervene up to '300 metres offshore' to 'stop ze boats'. This is in addition to a 'one-in, one-out' scheme whereby Britain can return rejected asylum-seekers to France in exchange for equal numbers of pre-approved asylum-seekers. On which point, I find miraculous agreement across the board, from the migrants, the charity sector and the French police to Nigel Farage. All are adamant: it is not going to make the slightest difference. So say the locals, too. Expert migration lawyer, Olivier Rangeon, tells me that the new '300 metre' rule still needs European Commission clearance. And, besides, the police have told him they cannot enforce it. 'It's not safe and the migrants are too numerous.' I meet Bertrand Ringot, who has been mayor of Gravelines for 25 years through multiple migrant crises on this coast. 'The only way to resolve the situation is for Britain to reduce its attraction to the migrants and to become more like France,' he says. Nor is he some hardline Right-winger, but a proud member of France's Socialist Party. 'We believe in humanity but with firmness,' adds this 59-year-old ex-member of the French rowing squad. 'Britain needs more severe rules. And, of course, identity cards.' Back at the canal, I seriously wonder if this latest boat will ever reach the sea, let alone to England. The skipper is an utter moron. He reverses the boat straight into the canal wall and it bounces off again just as two men try to jump in. They land in the water inches from the propeller and there is much Arabic shouting. Captain Calamity is still trying to circle round for another go when a blue flashing light tells us the cops are finally on their way. He realises it's time to head for sea. Pronto. We know exactly where the boat taxi is going next – up the canal, out to sea and round to Plage de Petit-Fort-Philippe. This is two miles of beach next to Gravelines and France's largest nuclear power station. It is flanked by sand dunes and bushes, a perfect waiting area for the migrants. Even as we wait to see our boat, a much larger overloaded migrant dinghy is setting off with around 100 on board. Its engine will have enough petrol to get the boat into UK territorial waters whereupon the fuel supply will deliberately run out, forcing the UK authorities to rescue them. A coastguard speedboat keeps an eye on them but makes no effort to intervene, let alone uphold French maritime law. This clearly states that anyone operating an outboard above six horsepower must pass the test for a boat licence called a 'permis bateau', on pain of arrest and/or a fine of €1,500 (£1,300). This engine is at least 40 horsepower. As Reform leader Nigel Farage tells me later: 'Every dinghy should be stopped by the French as any private person would be.' However, the coastguard just waves them off. There is absolutely no chance that Captain Calamity has a 'permis bateau'. But, as he comes into view, the coastguard makes no attempt to check him out either. Whereupon a small army suddenly comes swooping down from the dunes – instantly visible in bright orange lifejackets fresh from the local supermarket. Three smugglers are in charge, each covering his face with a black and white Arab keffiyeh, and trying to keep a semblance of order. As the taxi boat gets within wading distance, a smuggler waves the first group forward, including all the women. Far behind them all, I suddenly spot a family of four coming across the sand. Karwan and Sara Izadi, and their two children, Mohammed, six, and Alina, four, have none of the gung-ho confidence of the young men. Sara is in tears. Karwan appears to be hesitating. They briefly explain they are from Iran, have come via Turkey and Germany, and have spent more than a week living in the dunes waiting for their taxi boat. Either they have paid well over the £1,500 entry-level price or the other migrants are being chivalrous but the Izadis go straight to the front of the queue. Two smugglers hoist the children on their shoulders as the parents follow, their mother now up to her armpits in water. It takes half an hour to fill the boat but there are no police to be seen throughout. As Calamity points his bow vaguely in the direction of England, the coastguard crew come alongside. Are they actually going to check Calamity's papers? Of course not. They want to hand extra lifejackets for the migrants who never got round to buying one. The dozens of punters who failed to get on board today trudge back to the dunes. Some try to remonstrate with the traffickers but there seems little in the way of a complaints department at People Smugglers Inc. I try to talk to those who must wait for another day. One is Kuwaiti. A trio are Palestinian. Where from? 'Gaza.' I ask how they managed to get out of there and they bristle instantly. 'Are you Hebrew?' asks one, before a smuggler barks orders that no one is to talk to the press. It is 6:37am French time and the action is over for another day. Captain Calamity clearly manages to get picked up in British waters because, at 10:35 UK time, the Mail spots the Izadi family stepping off the Border Force patrol boat, Defender, at the Jetfoil Terminal in Dover Harbour, the reception point for migrants. It's been five hours door to door. That's not dissimilar to a Calais-Dover ferry crossing in high season by the time you add in the queues and customs checks. The British Government later confirms today's arrivals: six small boats and a total of 398 new 'irregular migrants' in need of board and lodging. Back in France, I still want to see if Sir Keir's 'crackdown' is hitting morale. It seems not. 'I will be in England soon,' says Ahmed Babeker, 24, from Sudan, who arrived here via Turkey. He is buying food at the makeshift camp in the woods near Loon-Plage. It's a rough spot. A Yemeni migrant was shot here the other day and a British photographer was chased off at knife point last week. But Ahmed is cheerful. 'Each week my family pay a little more,' he tells me, explaining that he has been here since November, waiting for his loved ones to pay a gang the requisite sum via the ancient money exchange system, 'hawala'. Once the account is settled, he'll be on his way. His plan? 'I want an education and then I want to be an electrical engineer,' he says, 'maybe in Liverpool or Birmingham.' At a smaller camp in a disused Calais loading bay, I find another Sudanese migrant, Salah Abdul Salam. He has already been granted asylum in Sweden where he has lived for six years and had a pre-Covid job at McDonald's. He shows me his Swedish residency papers and ID card. However, he's had enough of Malmo. 'Sweden is too cold. I want to go England. The English system is good.' As Gravelines mayor, Bertrand Ringot argues that is the root of the issue. He talks me through the problems in his town, where the daily mess left by the migrants requires six extra cleaners, costing €300,000 (£260,000) per year; where many women and girls are too scared to travel on buses, which are free to all and often full of gangs of foreign youths; where people are fed up with strangers in their gardens gathering firewood and peeping through windows. 'My message to Starmer is: change the conditions for staying in England. Work with us in Europe and make it harder to work in England without a permit. This situation is a time-bomb.' In the meantime, the French could at least enforce their own laws. As mentioned earlier, their rules ban unlicensed use of engines over six horsepower, meaning they could simply apprehend illegal 'taxi' drivers and tow their boats back to port. That's just what happens in European waters, as I know to my cost. Last year, on holiday with my family in Sicily, I sailed my rented boat into an unmarked exclusion zone. I was suddenly apprehended by an Italian patrol boat, held for an hour and ordered to pay a €320 fine or else face arrest. I duly coughed up. We have all heard of 'two-tier' justice. But it is certainly not confined to Britain. It's alive and well here in northern France, too. Welcome to the 'deux etages plages'.
Telegraph
18-07-2025
- Telegraph
Smugglers clash with French riot police after launching migrant boats
French riot police clashed with people smugglers in a coastal town a day after hundreds of migrants arrived in the UK on small boats. The smugglers pelted officers with rocks and used engine oil to set fire to benches and debris in Gravelines in the early hours of Friday morning. Britain and France have agreed to crack down on illegal Channel crossings, with French authorities trying to stop them from leaving their shores. On Thursday, however, hundreds of migrants managed to evade French police and board dinghies bound for Britain. The Telegraph witnessed dozens of officers armed with riot shields, assault rifles and helmets deployed on the streets of the seaside town, north-east of Calais, on Friday. Volleys of tear gas from grenade launchers were fired at the smugglers during the short-lived confrontation, leaving the town wreathed in a veil of acrid white smoke. Barricades were set up near the exit point of the River Aa which runs through the centre of the town and is used as a departure point for 'taxi boats' by the smugglers. It is believed the smugglers assaulted the officers as a diversionary tactic to, unsuccessfully, try and secretly launch dinghies full with migrants to Dover. Some of the smugglers, who were of Middle Eastern origin, jeered and mocked the officers while filming on their phones. Two of the men were seen wearing bright orange life jackets around their necks. The disorder broke out at around 5:30 am and lasted approximately 20 minutes before the smugglers were dispersed and fled back to their camps near Loon-Plage, a short 15-minute drive away to the east. The clashes came after gendarmes failed to stop two dinghies crammed with approximately 70 migrants from sailing on Thursday morning from the shores of Gravelines beach to Dover. A salvo of tear gas had done little to stop the crowd of around 200 migrants, including a family with a six-year-old son and four-year-old girl from trying to climb on. On one of the dinghies, the smugglers had jumped overboard before the vessel was intercepted by a French police patrol boat and escorted into British waters. The smugglers were allowed to walk back to their camps unhindered and try again the following day. It is estimated that 320 migrants successfully arrived in the UK on Thursday via small boats. Sir Keir Starmer, in a meeting with Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, in London that same day said he was 'very concerned' over smuggling routes through Germany. Sir Keir said the Government was determined to intervene at every stage of the people-smuggling journey, citing last week's agreement with France which allows the UK to return some migrants to France. He said: 'For a long time I've been very concerned about the fact that engines and component parts of the boats that are being used are travelling through and being stored in Germany. 'But they can't be seized because the law didn't accommodate for a country that had left the EU and therefore needed to be amended.'
Yahoo
18-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
On the beaches of northern France, exhausted police admit they've lost control
Karwan and Sara watch as smugglers hoist Mohammed, their six-year-old son, and Alina, their four-year-old daughter, onto their shoulders, wade out to sea, and bundle them onto an overloaded dinghy. Behind them, a crowd of 200 or so migrants are herded like cattle, waist-deep in the water, waiting their turn. The people-smugglers shout and shove them into position. More than 70 passengers are eventually squeezed on board the barely seaworthy vessel, their feet dangling over the side, ready to motor towards Dover. A French police patrol boat lazily circles the inflatable dinghy, watching the chaos unfold. It is 6am on Gravelines beach, and all in a day's work for the smugglers that increasingly control this sweeping stretch of coastline. All they have to do now is wade through the surf and head back unhindered towards the dunes 300 metres away to regroup and plan tomorrow's crossings. The scenes are painfully familiar to any of the 1,200 gendarmes deployed along France's northern beaches. Some told The Telegraph they are outmanoeuvred and outnumbered by the smugglers, who who adapt their tactics at pace. 'We are helpless... there is a French expression 'donner de la tête', we are overwhelmed and don't know where to start, we don't know where to go, there are so many boats leaving,' says Marc Musiol, a French border police officer in Pas-de-Calais. One well-placed international policing source labelled the situation a 'failure'. Since the beginning of this year, there have been 22,360 arrivals via small boats into the UK – an almost 60 per cent increase on last year. The numbers are rising as Sir Keir Starmer promised to 'smash the gangs' and hailed a new deal with Emmanuel Macron to stem the tide. But authorities here suggest the 'one-in, one-out' pledge is not worth the paper it is written on. Some also pour scorn on Mr Macron for talking tough without following through with 'concrete' changes. The scene on the beaches of Gravelines on Thursday morning is one replicated along the coast of northern France day in, day out, when the weather permits. In the early hours, police patrol cars scour the 200km of coastline between the border of Belgium and the Bay de Somme estuary. Police use drones fitted with night vision technology to scan the dunes where the migrants, mostly young adult men, will camp for the night before they attempt to cross the Channel. But the distances make it easy for smugglers and migrants to hide from stretched authorities. Gendarmes drive beige 4x4s in teams of three, drive down the shoreline, and survey the waters for inflatable dinghies. 'We are here every night, it is always the same, it never changes,' one officer said as he patrolled a beach car park. 'The migrants are everywhere.' The Telegraph encountered six patrols in the space of two hours during a 3am drive from Calais towards Wimereux, a seaside commune south of Boulogne and another known hotspot for Channel crossings. Interceptions remain scarce. Smugglers launch simultaneous crossings from up to 10 different beaches at a time to divide police attention and resources. Pre-inflated dinghies are launched from waterways and canals dozens of kilometres from the pickup point and sail down the coast. The smugglers use weather apps, such as Windy, on their phones to help them plan their crossings. The apps provide up-to-the-second information on wind speed, direction, and the swell. Sentries linked to the smuggling gangs are posted in the dunes and near the camps to watch for the boats. They alert over the phone that the dinghy is arriving and that it is time for its passengers to get on board. Mr Musiol said: 'There are always small groups of smugglers who know our beaches very, very well.' Often carrying nothing other than orange life jackets bought from Decathlon around their necks, the migrants sprint across the beach, hoping to do so before the police have time to react. Sometimes officers do, and fire a salvo of tear gas from grenade launchers. But this is often not enough. 'You have smugglers and their friends who throw stones at the police officers to distract them and to get the migrants onto the boat as quickly as possible,' one officer said. He estimated that there are roughly only three to six police officers for every 50 migrants trying to enter the sea. 'We have a lack of officers and you have a huge, huge amount of the coast to monitor,' he said. 'It is not possible with the number of the personnel the border police have, the gendarmerie, to monitor this entire stretch of coastline and beach.' The camps where migrants live are even more lawless. Inside the main camp at Loon Plage, 12 kilometres south-west of Dunkirk, shootings and stabbings between warring gangs for control of the best beaches are commonplace. On July 8, a 44-year-old Kurd from Iraq was shot five times in the legs at the camp. Around two dozen armed police were deployed that day to quell the violence. The month before, two other migrants were shot dead and another five injured. Balkan crime groups have established themselves as the dominant players in orchestrating the operations, but police sources say East African gangs out of Eritrea, especially, are rivalling them. One police source with knowledge of the people-smuggling gangs said efforts to stop the migrants were futile without a strategy to break up the wider smuggling networks. 'If you are dealing with it in Calais, you have failed, you are never going to succeed,' they said. 'You have got to look at it earlier on and deal with the cause of all of these problems. 'They are going to keep trying, a week later, they are going to give it another go. What else are they going to do, camp in Calais for the rest of their life? It's just not realistic.' Locals along the coast here, meanwhile, are fed up with seeing their coastline dominated by years of crisis and inaction. Alain Boonefaes, the deputy mayor of Gravelines, whose remit includes the town's safety and security, admitted the problem is endemic and there is little to be done. The seaside resort town, 30km south-east of Dunkirk, relies on tourism for survival but can see up to 350 migrant departures in a single evening. The mayor and many others in the town are deeply sceptical about Mr Macron's one-in-one-out policy, agreed with Sir Keir during the French president's three-day visit to London last week. The trial would allow the UK to return selected numbers of small boat arrivals to France. In exchange, the UK will admit an equal number of asylum seekers with legitimate ties, such as family. Even the police are sceptical. 'Macron has made political announcements and not concrete ones,' said Mr Musiol. 'We have the impression that nothing will change in terms of the police officer's work itself. 'You can put a police officer on every beach on the Opal Coast. The migrants will continue to come. We must stop this problem at the source – that is, in the country of origin.' He said 'there is no lasting solution that could stop the problem' along the coast here and in Britain, where migrants arrive and are ushered into camps and hotels. On Thursday morning, The Telegraph saw first-hand the limits of the policing operation. Gendarmes fired a salvo of tear gas into the sand dunes 300 metres from the shore, where hundreds of migrants had camped overnight. Coughing and spluttering, they were led out onto the beach by the smugglers, away from the haze of white smoke and towards the shore. Here they sat and waited for around 10 minutes for the 'taxi boat', launched from the west on River Aa, which runs through the centre of Gravelines and leads out into the sea, to arrive. The majority of the migrants were young men from the Middle East or Vietnam. An Iranian family of four – mother and father Karwan and Sara, and son and daughter, Alina and Mohammed – were a rare sight. Sara, one of only three women in the crowd, spoke in broken English of how her family had travelled nearly 9,000 kilometres from Tehran and had journeyed through Turkey and Germany to reach Calais. She indicated that they had spent 10 days at one of the camps near Dunkirk. This was their first attempt at a crossing. Sara dabbed tears from her eyes with her headscarf, watching Alina, her pink trousers pulled up to her knees, splash and dance joyfully in the water, oblivious to the perils around her. Karwan, gave no answer when asked what had made the family leave Tehran. He waded through the water as a 'taxi boat', already filled with 50 or so passengers, drew near to the shore. Sara and Karwan walked through the surf holding each other's hands, also clutching life jackets. Around them, smugglers bullied their human cargo into place. Alina and Mohammad were carried on the shoulders of smugglers and handed over to migrants already on board the boats, who hauled them in. They were followed by their mother and father, who sat in the centre of the flimsy dinghy. The passengers cheered and waved to those left behind on the beach and sailed, under a police escort, towards the UK. One of those left on the shore was Leo, a 25-year-old aspiring engineering student from Ghazni, in eastern Afghanistan, who had paid smugglers €1,500 (£1,296) to ferry him across the Channel. He had hoped to join his sister, who had made it to the UK last week via a small boat and is living in Manchester. He said: 'I left because of the Taliban. This was my first go, I will go again, I will go to London. My sister is married. The rest of my family, my papa, my mother, are still in Afghanistan.' Leo had fled his home country at the age of 13, making his way through Iran, Turkey, Germany, Sweden, and now Calais over the course of more than a decade. He followed the others up the hill towards the dune and back to the ramshackle, gang-ridden camp he calls home in Dunkirk. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. Solve the daily Crossword
Daily Mail
18-07-2025
- Daily Mail
Migrant clashes erupt in northern France with rocks launched at riot cops and fires blazing in the street as police try to stop launch of small boat bound for Britain
Clashes erupted between riot police and migrants early this morning in northern France, with projectiles thrown and fires lit in the street. Dramatic pictures and video show a group throwing rocks in the direction of the officers early on Friday, while fires blazed in the road near a park in Gravelines. The confrontation is said to have been triggered when police arrived to stop the launch of a small boat, likely bound for Britain, from a canal in the town. A number of men who faced off with police were wearing life jackets, according to reporters at the scene. The incident involving the group of migrants and Gendarmerie and Police Nationale officers, who were equipped with shields, helmets and tear gas. It lasted for about 20 minutes at around 5.30am and police reportedly used tear gas to disperse the group. Yesterday morning, migrants were filmed running into the water and boarding a dinghy at Gravelines beach. Pictures show people running out to meet the inflatable boat, which was dangerously overfull with dozens of young men clinging onto the sides in a desperate attempt to cross the channel. French police have employed tougher tactics in tackling the small boats crisis in recent weeks, according to Downing Street. Footage emerged earlier this month of officers slashing a dinghy packed with migrants and dragging the deflated vessel back to dry land, prompting anger from refugee charities. But footage which emerged yesterday showed the moment French coastguard members off the coast of Gravelines handed out lifejackets to migrants about to cross the Channel to Britain. Officials are seen passing life jackets to migrants in a dangerously full dinghy, rather than stopping it from heading out into the open sea. No police were seen on the beach as the group boarded the black inflatable boat. Witnesses saw one boat drop off several men at around 5am, who went into the sand dunes, before a second boat came close to shore, circling until the migrants appeared on the beach. The people, including a family with two children, put themselves into groups before trying to climb onto the boat. Around 40 people, believed to be about half of the full group, then left on the dinghy unhindered. More than 22,500 people have arrived in the UK after crossing the English Channel so far in 2025, a record for this point in the year. The same milestone was not hit until mid-to-late August in previous years, including 2022 - the year which went on to see a record annual total of 45,700 arrivals. Last week, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron agreed a one in, one out migrant returns deal in a bid to crack down on the crossings and the people smuggling gangs who operate them. Leaks had suggested 50 migrants a week, around one in 17 arrivals, would be sent back to France initially. But that was seemingly not signed off by the leaders. Sir Keir met with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Thursday where he also praised Berlin's plans to strengthen laws to disrupt small boat crossings by the end of the year. The PM said the countries were sending a 'clear sign we mean business' as he and the Chancellor signed the first bilateral treaty since the Second World War. It includes moves to close a loophole that has meant people-smuggling gangs could use Germany as a hub to store equipment without danger of prosecution.
The Sun
18-07-2025
- Politics
- The Sun
Moment migrant wearing life jacket joins mob of yobs lobbing rocks at French riot cops hours after ANOTHER boat set sail
SHOCKING footage shows the moment a migrant wearing a life jacket joined a mob hurling rocks at French riot police in the early hours of the morning. The clashes between migrants and cops were caught on camera while small fires are alight in the road near a park in Gravelines in France. 4 4 4 Video show shows a group throwing rocks from afar in the direction of the officers in the northern coastal town early on Friday morning. The scene between the men and the Gendarmerie and Police Nationale officers, who were equipped with shields, helmets and tear gas, lasted for about 20 minutes at around 5.30am. Rocks were seen being hurled as fires burned in the background. It came after migrants were filmed running into the water and boarding a dinghy at Gravelines beach on Thursday morning. The migrants were pictured trying to board the dinghy on the beach of Petit-Fort-Philippe in Gravelines, near Calais. Around 40 people, believed to be about half of the full group that scrambled over the sands, left the coast of France. French authorities in an inflatable boat out at sea approached the overcrowded dinghy, passing those on board lifejackets. No police were seen on the beach when the groups of people came out of the sand dunes and attempted to board the black inflatable boat. More than 22,500 people have arrived in the UK after crossing the English Channel so far in 2025, a record for this point in the year. It comes after a new migrant deal was agreed between the UK and France in a bid to tackle the small boats crisis. Last week, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron agreed a one in, one out migrant returns deal in a bid to crack down on the crossings and the people smuggling gangs who operate them. But France will be able to choose which migrants to take back - prompting fears that the UK will be stuck with dangerous criminals. The details of each migrant selected for return will be given to France, allowing it to reject those with a criminal record or deemed a security risk. Both France and the UK will have a veto over which of the small boat migrants they take in. Britain will take into account if the migrants have a connection to the country and if they have lived here before. There may be an uptick in migrants stowing away in cars and lorries, or taking more dangerous routes into the country. The PM hailed the "groundbreaking" returns' scheme as "aggressive" - but admitted it was merely a pilot plan that would deal with just a fraction of the migrants trying to cross the Channel every day. Sir Keir also met with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz yesterday where he also praised Berlin's plans to strengthen laws to disrupt small boat crossings by the end of the year.
