A French policeman slashes an inflatable dinghy filled with migrants in images showing a dramatic escalation of force against people smugglers.
French authorities have been increasingly accused of a soft-touch approach, fuelled by photographs showing officers standing by as heavily-laden boats enter the Channel.
But they have been told to significantly ramp up their efforts after five migrants – including a seven-year-old girl – were killed after a rival group armed with sticks and knives stormed their dinghy on Tuesday.
‘It’s an impossible task – there are just too many boats now. It’s like playing whack-a-mole. You stop one boat and then another arrives,’ an officer told the Sun.
A French policeman slashes an inflatable dinghy filled with migrants in images showing a dramatic escalation of force against people smugglers
French police launch tear gas to disperse migrants to prevent them from boarding a smuggler’s boat in an attempt to cross the English Channel, on the beach of Gravelines, near Dunkirk
French authorities have been increasingly accused of a soft-touch approach, fuelled by photographs showing officers standing by as heavily-laden boats enter the Channel
However, despite attempts to stop the boat by slashing it open, the police ultimately failed, when another dinghey arrived just 15 minutes later.
The migrants, who were mainly from Sudan and Vietnam, hopped into the new vessel and managed to push off to sea before officers could stop them.
An Interior Ministry source based in northern France told the Mail: ‘There have been accusations that the police have been holding back when dealing with the smuggling gangs.
‘This is mainly because they don’t want to get involved in violence with the migrants, but they must realise that this has to change.
‘There was certainly widespread disgust across the various police forces about what happened last Tuesday – the thought that a gang could have used lethal violence to get a place on a boat is incredibly worrying.
‘Something needs to change, and to change quickly, and the police believe they can do this.’
Photographs of an operation on Dunkirk beach show officers dressed in body-armour wading into the surf to foil an attempted crossing.
One officer is seen wielding a knife as he prepares to deflate a dinghy overloaded with dozens of migrant. Other policemen are seen dragging away the boat’s motor.
Distraught migrants are seen collapsing onto the beach as they are prevented from making the dangerous journey, which some had paid up to £1000 each to attempt.
The dramatic change in tactics is understood to be a direct response to the tragedy that unfolded on Tuesday near the town of Wimereux in the early hours of Tuesday.
An Interior Ministry source based in northern France told the Mail: ‘There have been accusations that the police have been holiding back when dealing with the smuggling gangs’
Distraught migrants are seen collapsing onto the beach as they are prevented from making the dangerous journey, which some had paid up to £1000 each to attempt
The dramatic change in tactics is understood to be a direct response to the tragedy that unfolded on Tuesday near the town of Wimereux in the early hours of Tuesday
Three men, a woman and a seven-year-old girl died during the chaos after their dinghy, laden with 112 people, was stormed by a rival group of migrants as it prepared to set off.
An 18-year-old survivor, named only as Heivin, yesterday told how dozens of people were trampled as migrants armed with sticks and knives piled into the vessel.
The Iraqi teenager told Sky News: ‘It was because of them that people died.
‘If they hadn’t come and started fighting, none of this would have happened.. People were fighting, people were getting stepped on, they were dying and being thrown off.’
Heivin said she fell into the water herself but was yanked back into the vessel by another passenger.
Two others who fell into the water, including the young girl, were less fortunate and drowned while the other three casualties were crushed on overcrowded boat under the grappling bodies.
She added: ‘I had tried to be at the front, but after I fell in the water I sat on the edge of the boat and didn’t go towards the other end – that’s where people were fighting.
‘I thank God that I didn’t get into the top part of the dinghy. I would have suffocated. I thank God for that every day.’
The tragedy sparked a furious response from Jean-Luc Dubaele, Wimereux’s mayor, who accused police of allowing the coast to be turned into a ‘slaughterhouse’.
French police launch tear gas to disperse migrants to prevent them from boarding a smuggler’s boat in an attempt to cross the English Channel, on the beach of Gravelines, near Dunkirk
This comes as dozens of migrants were intercepted crossing the Channel today – the first day of arrivals since five people died attempting the journey on Tuesday
On the same day as the tragedy an estimated 300 migrants crossed the Channel in small boats, following a week with no crossings, bringing the total for 2024 so far to roughly 6,500
The Interior Ministry source added: ‘Mr Dubaele called for the army to be brought in, because the police have clearly been failing.
‘He’s been extremely outspoken about the situation, and police are clearly responding to what is going on, by taking a more robost approch to this issues.’
A teenager from South Sudan, who told Folkestone Magistrates Court yesterday that he is 15, was charged with assisting unlawful immigration and attempting to arrive in the UK without valid entry clearance.
An alleged accomplice, a Sudanese national who claims he is 16, has been charged with attempting to arrive in the UK without valid entry clearance.
Initially, it was thought the pair were both 22, but the Home Office assessment was challenged in court.
The pair were bailed into the care of social services and will next appear in the youth court on April 30.
On the same day as the tragedy an estimated 300 migrants crossed the Channel in small boats, following a week with no crossings, bringing the total for 2024 so far to roughly 6,500.
This is up by nearly a quarter compared to the same period the year before.
This comes as dozens of migrants were intercepted crossing the Channel today – the first day of arrivals since five people died attempting the journey on Tuesday.
Mainly male migrants aboard an inflatable dinghy were spotted being brought ashore at the Port of Dover by a Border Force vessel after being intercepted in the strait.
Wearing orange life jackets, they were marshalled off the boat and then were taken into the immigration processing centre in the former cruise terminal on the Kent coast.
The arrivals are the first since Tuesday, when 402 migrants aboard seven boats arrived.
Nearly 121,000 migrants have now been intercepted crossing the English Channel in small boats in the more than six years, according to the official data.
Migrants board a small boat in an attempt to cross the English Channel, on the beach of Gravelines, near Dunkirk, northern France on April 26
Migrants wade in the water to board a small boat to cross the Channel from Gravelines
A migrant reacts as a French police officer stands by ready to puncture the boat with a knife to prevent migrants from embarking in an attempt to cross the English Channel
A total of 120,993 people have made the dangerous crossing since the start of 2018 when records began.
The latest figures show that 6,667 migrants have crossed the Channel on small boats so far this year which is broadly similar to the numbers last year and 2022.
Elsewhere, photos from today show migrants boarding an inflatable dinghy in an attempt to cross the English Channel, on the beach of Gravelines, near Dunkirk, northern France.
The waded through the waves off the coast and onto the boat and some were confronted by French police officers.
The officers were ready to puncture the boat to prevent the crossing and one photo shows two making off with the dinghy’s outboard motor.
Other photos show migrants being chased by French police while attempting to board a boat to cross the Channel.
This comes as two 22-year-old men were today charged with immigration offences as part of an investigation into the deaths of five migrants, including a child, who died trying to cross the English Channel, the National Crime Agency have said.
Yien Both, a 22-year-old from South Sudan, has been charged with assisting unlawful immigration and attempting to arrive in the UK without valid entry clearance.
Tajdeen Adbulaziz Juma, a 22-year-old Sudanese national, has been charged with attempting to arrive in the UK without valid entry clearance.
Both men have been remanded in custody and are expected to appear before Folkestone Magistrates’ Court later today.
A third man, an 18-year-old from Sudan, has been bailed pending further inquiries.
A migrant reacts as she is chased by French police while attempting to board a boat in an attempt to cross the English Channel
French Police officers carry the outboard engine from a small boat after migrants failed an attempt to cross the English Channel today
A dinghy of migrants pictured today in French waters escorted by the French Border Patrol
The five people who died were onboard a vessel designed for a maximum of 20 people on Tuesday. They include a girl who was six, a woman in her 30s and three men.
However, after the dinghy was overrun by 50 men from sub-Saharan Africa minutes before it was due to set off from France, they were crushed to death.
The boat had 112 people on board when it left from France with 402 migrants crossing the Channel in a total of seven boats that day.
It also comes Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda Bill has become law after weeks of parliamentary deadlock, paving the way for deportation flights to get off the ground.
The Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill became an Act of Parliament after being granted royal assent, the Lord Speaker told the House of Lords on Thursday.
The accompanying treaty the UK has signed with the east African nation has also been ratified, the Home Office confirmed later in the afternoon.
Home Secretary James Cleverly insisted spending money on the Rwanda scheme was ‘absolutely worth it’ and the Government would ‘keep those flights going until we stop the boats’.
Mr Cleverly said managing borders ‘has never come for free’ and told those wanting to delay the plan that there is ‘nothing moral about allowing people to drown in the sea at the hands of criminals’ as he vowed to emulate Italian efforts to tackle migrant crossings.
