01-07-2025
Lined up and waiting to cross the Channel for a new life in UK, NEIL SEARS reports on the migrant crisis from Gravelines, near Calais
It's the pretty holiday town that has become notorious as the most popular launchpad for migrants heading for Britain.
For the last two years, I have been reporting from Gravelines because its canal connecting to the sea has become one of the key starting points for so-called 'taxi boats' – dinghies which are launched at quiet spots inland before they pick up illicit passengers on the beaches.
The people smugglers are exploiting a loophole which means that once their flimsy overloaded craft are afloat, the French will not deal with them due to fears of causing injury – regardless of recent talk of change.
And there is no doubt that the French police, generously funded by UK taxpayers, are well aware that Gravelines – and its canal, which lies between Calais and Dunkirk – is a key departure point.
Yet as I drove through Gravelines at 5am yesterday, there was not a single officer present when I came across a dinghy in the canal, about a mile from the sea, with half a dozen migrants already on board.
It floated under a bridge and past the smart L'eclusier steak frites restaurant, in full view of housing and a historic fort, as about a dozen more migrants on the sloping bank climbed on to the boat as it drifted back into the middle of the canal.
Only after ten minutes did the gendarmes arrive in five vans and even then they did nothing to stop the 30ft craft. So under the eyes of at least two dozen Police Nationale CRS riot squad officers – armed with handguns and tear gas – more than 100 more migrants arrived and gathered on the canal bank to prepare to board.
They had wandered to the spot in large groups, unhurried, past Gravelines' skate park and through the town's leafy leisure area. As ever, the vast majority were men in their 20s, but there were a smattering of women in headscarves. A toddler sat on an adult's shoulders, as if they were heading on a family stroll.
Despite the rising heat, soon to exceed 30C (86F), many were well wrapped up, complete with hoods, ready for the open sea.
Only a handful, however, had lifejackets, following a shortage in supplies from local sports centres. This had led to some migrants earlier in the week travelling with only children's rubber rings. Yesterday, most had no safety equipment at all.
It seemed the only anxiety among this large group of migrants – queuing as they would have done for the free local bus which had brought them here from the main migrant camp in wasteland at Grande-Synthe eight miles away – was whether they could squeeze on board and the dinghy would start.
A fortnight ago, when I saw several taxi boat dinghies collect migrants from the beach nearby, police had shown me a video of them driving away refugees from this same canal-side spot using tear gas. Then, the migrants had just walked to the beach 20 minutes away – some boarding there instead, with one evading officers despite being on crutches.
Yesterday, though, no tear gas was fired and no batons were drawn. The large squad of officers just parked their vans either side of the migrants, with a couple gruffly telling the group to disperse. Most of the refugees ignored them and sat or stood coolly watching their dinghy from the bank. One videoed the scene.
On this occasion, the dinghy did not make it across the Channel – not due to the efforts of police, but thanks to its cheap Chinese outboard motor, which failed to start. What a tragedy its malfunction could have caused if it had happened in the middle of the busy shipping lane.
I watched alongside the police for more than two hours as the migrants on board tried to tinker with the motor, repeatedly pulling its starting cord, before the boat drifted out with the tide into a jetty on the canal.
The 17 – mainly African and Middle Eastern young men on board – were then allowed to simply get off and walk back to the migrant camp and try again today.
The 100-strong crowd eventually dissipated after stern words from the police – although it appeared to be mainly due to the fact that the dinghy's engine had failed. None of them was questioned, let alone arrested.
The French equivalent of the RNLI – Les Sauveteurs en Mer – then towed the stricken dinghy to a slipway, where an officer proudly slashed it with a knife.
But he must have been well aware that this crossing had been foiled simply because of the penny-pinching of the greedy people smugglers, with their cheap motor.
The operation had also tied up several dozen emergency workers. While they were busy, more boats were able to launch along the 100 miles of coastline.
Another CRS officer said: 'This is the third boat we've tried to stop this morning between Gravelines and Dunkirk. This one seems to have had a cheap Chinese engine, which they can't start.'
A local migrants' charity worker, who was also watching the scene, added: 'My colleagues have received three distress calls from dinghies already at sea this morning. They may be picked up on the English side.
'And whatever action the police take – such as smashing up the migrants' shops at their camp – it makes no difference. The next day, the migrants have set it up again just the same.
'We believe the authorities should recognise that they're here and do more for them, so they're not camping outside without facilities.
'And when the weather is calm and warm like this, the boats will just keep on going – at all hours of the day, and all along the coast.'
