French Police Puncture Migrant Boats at Sea for First Time
French police have punctured Channel migrants’ boats at sea for the first time in a change of tactics backed by the UK Government. The Telegraph has more.
Officers entered the sea on a beach near Boulogne-sur-Mer on Friday armed with knives to puncture the dinghies in water that was shallow enough for the migrants to wade back to shore.
Dozens of migrants, including some women and children, had to give up their attempt to reach the UK as the boat started to deflate and sink.
Ms Cooper, the Home Secretary, said it was a âdifferentâ and âwelcomeâ strategy that was part of wider plans for French border police and gendarmes to start intervening in shallow waters within 300 metres of the shore to stop migrantsâ boats leaving.
The new strategy is expected to be unveiled at next weekâs Anglo-French summit when Emmanuel Macron comes to the UK for a three-day state visit.
It comes as a record 20,422 migrants have reached the UK so far this year, up nearly 50% on last year and the highest number in the first six months of any year since the Channel crossings started in 2018. Some 5,170 arrived in June alone.
Ms Cooper has been in talks with the French for their border sea patrols and officers to intercept people smugglersâ taxi boats not only in the shallow waters as they leave the beaches, but also when they make their way from rivers and inland waterways to pick up the migrants.
âIâve been talking to the French interior minister about the importance of action in French waters,â Ms Cooper said.
She added: âThatâs what we need in order to prevent boat crossings. Weâve seen criminal gangs this year really exploiting the fact that the French rules for too long have meant that they could not intervene in French waters.â
âThe French interior minister has been determined to change those rules. He has been working to do that. Iâve been working very closely with him on it.
âWe do think that thereâs a wider range of interventions that can be used. Our small boats operational command has been working closely with the French authorities on what those options might be.
âThat work is still underway, but both of us, as interior ministers, the French minister and I, are pressing for this to happen as swiftly as possible and as extensively as possible.â
This week they discovered knives. What will they discover next week â deportations?
Worth reading in full.
Watch footage of the dinghy-slashing on the BBC here.
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A lâeau! Câest lâheure! đ
It strikes me as odd, though, that the BBC was there at the right time and the right place to film this.
Also, it’s rather clear to me that the guy waving his hands isn’t least one of the smugglers?
Shouldn’t he be arrested on the spot for being about to endanger the lives of all those doctors, engineers and little kids?
Youâre not suggesting it was a set up so Two-neurone Starmer can another Government success?
Of course not. And the fact that tomorrow is his first anniversary as PM is just a mere coincidence.
Heaven forfend!
Macron is setting out a proposal that he will stop the boats if UK joins EU wide migrant sharing initiative. Full story by Jeff Taylor. https://youtu.be/pLYeABVg2q0?si=25dS38o3RSe6noCh
A reward for Starmer surrendering to the EU.
Itâs All a warmup act for Macron state visit.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2025/07/04/emmanuel-brigitte-macron-state-visit-royal-family-windsor/
Stop the incentives to come. zero benefits, a camp area surrounded by barbed wire and guards, immediate deportation to homeland or to the Chagos.
If we stopped the incentives and made life unbearable they wouldnt come.
Precisely. Which rather provokes the question: “Why haven’t successive governments done just that?”
because they are being ordered not to
1000 free Wimbledon tickets went to illegal migrants
Was that a sort of rain dance gesture? Appease the rain gods?
The Great Donald suggests a camp surrounded by alligators. I would create a detention centre on an islet in the Falklands where trying to swim away would see you freeze to death.
I note the BBC video has a trigger warning ‘Contains upsetting scenes’, and ‘Distressing content’.
Who is upset or distressed? Not most BBC licence payers I’d guess.
Upsetting and distressing to that daft boat and crap engine?
It is entirely possible that some people will wonder if this little drama was actually staged. Surely not. It will have all been verified by the BBC which is clearly in a state of emotional distress.
I wonder if the French policeman will face disciplinary sanctions. After all, preventing
undesireablespoor asylum seekers from leaving French responsibility has no doubt cost France a euro-or-two. Perhaps BBC Verify could check up on the poor chap. Nah. Thought not.None of the would-be Channel-crossers were put in any additional danger. They’d already voluntarily waded out that far into the sea to get to the boat.
Ah bon, mais un jour en retard et un franc manquant.
Drones operating before these inflatables get to the sea could puncture them. As alwlays the British authorities are scared to act.
French Drones operating before these inflatables get to the sea could puncture them
FTFY
Blow me, if that isn’t actually a woman and a child at the right side of the pic there! đ§ Amazing. I thought they were like unicorns, or something, but they do exist, after all.
This might sound judgy but I’m actually appalled that a mother would put her child through that unnecessary high risk journey when they’re already in a safe country and have travelled through god knows how many others. I can’t see any justification for placing a child in danger like that. I don’t know where they originate but hasn’t the kid been through enough? Plus, the country they first sought and were granted asylum ( much easier with a young kid ) must surely be obligated to look after them, house them and allow the kid into school there.
I suspect this boat in question was very carefully selected for the BBC crew.
Unquestionably.
All for show?
Lets see.
20 years too bloody late
Quick, throw the masses a slice of cake! Theyâre revolting.
Ah!
The Peasants are revolting!
Ooh, I know!
(Ta to Kenneth Williams in Carry On Don’t Lose Your Head.)
I’ve said all along just limit the sale of inflatable boats to one per customer across the EU.
If you have a licence, for example a ferry company or boat building company, then you can buy more, why oh why would anyone need 200 rubber dinghies?
Well, they’re such poor quality they’re only good for one outing.
Fabriqué en Chine
I’m convinced this is a one off to convince gullible people like Starmer that they’re getting serious about stopping the boats/give him something he can use as positive PR as a thank you for selling out our fishermen.
About a month ago the French coastguard picked up people from one or two boats and took them back to France, this doesn’t seem to of happened again.
A couple of years ago they put booms across at least, and quite possibly only, one inland waterway to stop boats launching from there. Boats are still launching from inland waterways, are the booms still in place? If the booms weren’t effective why didn’t they use loads of razor wire?
Rishi’s, or maybe it was Boris’, big mistake was to give the French money up front to stop the boats. I’d be happy if they’d offered 3 or 4 times as much to be given in small instalments every time they could prove they’d done something effective. For example so much for every boat punctured/intercepted at sea and taken back to France and so much for each inland waterway effectively blocked and so much for each month it stays blocked.
Question:
Why was the people smuggler not arrested?
Is there a criminal act or is this classified as a ferry?
A staged intervention, prior to Macron’s visit next week.
Today it will be back to “business as usual” for the dinghy gangs and the French authorities standing by as the criminal migrants set off for the land of “free everything.”
Another staged play so that Brits could feel assured âsomethingâ was being done about these pesky illegals migrants. Pathetic.