Latest news with #boatcrossing
BBC News
04-07-2025
- BBC News
French police slash inflatable migrant boat heading to UK
Amid chaotic scenes, French police waded into shallow waters off a beach south of Boulogne early on Friday morning and used knives to slash an inflatable small boat - packed with men, women and children - that was wallowing, dangerously, in the those onboard clambered to safety as the boat intervention was highly unusual. French police usually follow strict rules that bar them from going into the sea in case they put lives at risk."Let's go in," said one of the gendarmes, pulling off his body armour, and taking out a small knife. His colleagues took their heavy armour off, too, placing equipment in the back of a nearby police car before rushing into the is possible to see this rare incident as evidence that the French police - under growing pressure to stop a surge of small boat migrant crossings to the UK - are changing their tactics. But well-placed sources in France have told us that the procedural changes now being considered will almost certainly focus on the use of patrol boats at sea to intercept the "taxi-boats" before they're fully loaded, rather than on approving more aggressive interventions from police on the beaches. A few metres offshore, the boat itself was clearly in trouble. People were crowded around the outboard motor, which had briefly stalled but was being restarted. Waves were breaking underneath the boat, causing it to lurch wildly, and there were loud screams from several children who were in danger of being crushed two large groups of people already wearing orange life jackets had emerged from the nearby dunes and rushed towards the sea. In all there were probably 80 or 100 people. But when the first "taxi-boat" - used by the smuggling gangs to collect passengers from various points along the French coast - sped past perhaps 100m from the shore, it was clearly full already and did not stop to pick anyone else up.A few minutes later, a second boat, with almost no passengers, came towards the shore, watched by a French coastguard boat further into the English Channel. Initially, people were ushered forwards in organised groups, holding hands, and directed by one man who appeared to be leading events. But as the inflatable boat turned and reversed towards the shore, there was a scrum as dozens of people scrambled to climb aboard in water that was at least waist first the gendarmes declined to intervene and stood watching from the shore. One officer repeated a now-familiar explanation to me - that they were barred from going into the water except to rescue people. But as the situation became increasingly chaotic, the officers at the scene clearly felt that a line had been crossed, that those on board were now in danger, and that there was a brief opportunity to disable the boat in relative safety and while any smugglers - who might have fought back - were distracted by their attempts to restart the a policeman slashed repeatedly at the rubber, there were cries and shouts of anger and frustration from some of those onboard. A young girl, who had been in the middle of the scrum, squashed at the stern of the boat close to the engine, was plucked to safety as others scrambled on to the nearby later the boat was dragged ashore by the police as the migrants began collecting items they had dropped on the beach and then headed inland, up the sandy paths through the dunes towards the nearest village and a bus-ride back to the migrant camps further north.
Times
02-06-2025
- General
- Times
Why can't French police go into the Channel to arrest migrants?
The images have become all too familiar. On Saturday, French police stood on the shore watching as dozens of migrants, including young children, crammed on to a dinghy a few hundred metres off the coast. It has happened often, and in some cases migrants have drowned in front of the watching gendarmes. While it appears unfathomable, the refusal of the police to intervene is ultimately a matter of French rules. The UK is pushing for those rules to change. Why don't the French police stop more boats? The French insist there areboth legal and practical constraints. Once a boat is afloat in the water, it is not within the powers of the gendarmerie to intercept it and bring it back to shore, even if it is safe to do so. In February the French interior minister, Bruno Retailleau, said he wanted to give the gendarmerie new powers that would allow them to intercept boats within 300m of the coast. 'We need to rethink our approach so that we can intercept the boats. They [the gendarmerie] must be able to intervene in shallow waters,' he said. Retailleau also said he hoped to restore the offence of an 'illegal stay' in France, which would allow police to arrest migrants and smugglers before they attempt a crossing. At present, migrants who are only considered to have committed an offence when they launch the boat. More than three months on, neither of these changes have occurred. The Home Office said at the weekend that it was still 'urging the French to make the necessary changes to their operational policy so their maritime forces can intervene in shallow waters as soon as possible'. The French have instead begun a review into 'new operational tactics', although it is unclear what the outcome will be. One of the concerns is said to centre around whether gendarmes should wear body armour in the water. Another is what French officers, who routinely carry guns, should to do protect them while in the sea. Why don't the French disable the boats before they launch? Two years ago the French began a new policy, at the behest of the British, of disabling boats before launch. This was done by slashing the rubber inflatables. But this prompted the traffickers to change their tactics, launching from inland waterways then sailing into shallow waters off Channel beaches, where they pick up migrants who wade out to meet the vessel. Because the boats were already in the water, police could not intercept or disable them. This new tactic is understood to be partly to blame for the fall in the number of boats being intercepted by France, from 47 per cent in 2023 to just over 38 per cent so far this year. What other issues are there? Manpower. In 2023, the UK agreed to pay France almost £500 million over three years for extra officers to join the effort. The French have 1,200 security personnel who can be deployed each day on coastal smuggler operations. Some 730 of them are paid for by the British. But they are still having to operate across 62 miles of coastline and many potential launch points. Even when police are present, they can face personal danger attempting to stop the boats. Last weekend in Audinghen, west of Calais, two officers were taken to hospital after being pelted with stones thrown by migrants who were boarding two boats. French police policy is only to intervene if there are enough officers present to safely control the situation. That is why you see pictures of police standing by while boats launch.
Sky News
21-05-2025
- General
- Sky News
Two people die as migrants try to cross English Channel
Two people have died after falling unconscious on a boat trying to cross the English Channel, the French coastguard has said. An emergency operation was launched to help the two people and 10 others who also needed assistance. They were among nearly 80 migrants making the overnight crossing on a boat which left the shore from Gravelines, near Calais, in northern France, according to the coastguard. Rescuers from a French Navy vessel set out to reach the boat and performed first aid on the two people, but a medical team later confirmed their deaths. The bodies and those rescued were taken to Calais. The remaining migrants on the boat were allowed to continue their journey towards British waters under the surveillance of the French Navy. Pictures show migrants wrapped in blankets disembarking from a Border Force boat in Dover, Kent, on Wednesday morning. Others were also brought to shore in an RNLI lifeboat. The deaths came just days after another person was confirmed dead when a small boat sank in the Channel. French officials said on Monday that 62 people were pulled from the water after the "overloaded" boat broke up overnight. More than 12,500 people have made the journey across the Channel and arrived in the UK so far in 2025 - a record number for this point in the calendar year since data was first collected in 2018.
