French police use tear gas on migrants and slash their dinghies as they head for Britain – but it doesn’t stop them
Police trying to stop migrants leaving French beaches for British shores used tougher tactics yesterday, including firing tear gas and cutting an overcrowded rubber boat into the sea.
But the new aggression seen by a Daily Mail reporter failed to deter more boatloads of migrants crossing the Channel.
A rubber boat with about 80 people on board, including at least three children, capsized in the middle of the busy shipping route yesterday morning.
A six-month-old baby is believed to have been among those who entered the water, but no serious injuries were reported. Yesterday we reported in the Mail how French police officers watched as a migrant taxi boat picked up passengers from Gravelines beach and headed to Dover.
Migrants wave at a smuggler’s boat in an attempt to cross the English Channel, on Gravelines beach, near Dunkirk, northern France on April 26
French police launch tear gas to disperse migrants and prevent them from boarding a smugglers’ boat in an attempt to cross the English Channel
Migrants carry a smuggling boat on their shoulders as they prepare to board
A police commander said that for security reasons they were prohibited from intervening if migrants were in even ankle-deep water. But yesterday morning on the same beach, another police team fired tear gas canisters at a migrant boat, which had arrived to pick up additional passengers.
Police action drove the animal away before the migrants could climb aboard. Instead it headed straight towards Dover. Later, a second dinghy arrived with 40 passengers on board, who had boarded further along the coast.
This time, police rushed into the waves and cut open the rubber hull of the dinghy, causing it to sink. Passengers left and trudged across the beach to a migrant camp in Grande-Synthe, near Dunkirk. The French migrant organization Utopia 56 had a van waiting for them.
Paid charity coordinator Thomas Chambon said: ‘We’ve complained about police using tear gas and cutting up boats – and since then they’ve said they won’t touch migrants if they get even one foot wet.
Police trying to stop migrants leaving French beaches for British shores used harsher tactics
Migrants scatter under tear gas from French police, preventing them from boarding a smuggler’s boat
“But what happened today shows they’re still doing it.”
It came as a government lawyer told the High Court that officials challenging the legality of part of Rwanda’s asylum program must follow ministers’ directions. The FDA union, which represents senior officials, is pursuing legal action over an alleged conflict between the Government’s Safety of Rwanda Act and the Civil Service Code.
But Sir James Eadie KC, representing the Cabinet Office, said it was not an option for civil servants to “form their own views on the legality of UK compliance” by refusing to implement a minister’s decision. A decision is expected at a later date.
