A top Australian newspaper has claimed to have seen French authorities aiding illegal migrants in making their way on people-smuggler-operated small boats to the United Kingdom.
Despite London committing to pay over a billion pounds sterling to Paris in exchange for clamping down on the human trafficking gangs and the boat migrant trade that operates along the French coastline, The Australian newspaper has reported to have “witnessed French police stand by – and even assist – as 650 migrants crossed the English Channel in a single day.”
London-based Europe Correspondent for the paper, Jacquelin Magnay, said that French police officers “actively assisted in pointing out the best areas for the dinghy to come in closer to shore where it’s shallower and that the migrants might find it easier to get on board.”
When pressed on why they don’t intervene and prevent the migrant boats from setting sail in the English Channel, such as by slashing the rubber boats, the French police told the paper that “it’s complicated”.
The police claimed that doing so may endanger the lives of the illegal migrants, despite the fact that the migrants are picked up by the boats in little more than waist-high water.
The Australian report said that French railway officials “turn a blind eye to the fare-dodging” migrants as they head to predetermined locations on the coast, while “police ensure there is no interruption to their journey.”
Additionally, the paper said that the European Border Force Frontex and Spain’s civil guard were also seen operating along the coast, while also refusing to prevent the illegals from setting off towards Britain.
The report undermines claims from the left-wing Labour Party government in Britain that the taxpayer cash given to France to stop the crisis is money well spent. The previous Starmer government committed to pay Paris £662 million ($893m) through 2029 to help fund police patrols, while the preceding Tory government committed around £476 million ($642m) between 2023 and 2026, during which time around a hundred thousand illegals reached British shores.
In a TikTok video released by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood over the weekend, Britain’s top immigration official said that there was “a lot of noise” about “large boats” in the Channel. Mahmood claimed that the UK’s cooperation with the French is “making it harder for the criminal gangs to launch boats”.
She credited this with the reduction in crossings this year; however, it is unclear how much of the reduction is due to police action versus the weather, which often prevents safe crossings.
Rather than relying on law enforcement to stymie people smuggling gangs — which apparently spring up faster than they can be caught — Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has vowed to turn back the boats, and has secured a historic Memorandum of Understanding from the likely future prime minister of France, National Rally leader Jordan Bardella, to allow English vessels to push back migrant boats to the French coast.
This policy would mimic the remarkably successful Operation Sovereign Borders policy of former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who used pushbacks and offshore asylum centres to all but eliminate a similar boat migrant crisis from Indonesia. Abbott has argued that enacting such a scheme would benefit France as well as the UK, as it would reduce the pull factors for illegals to France if they know the route to England has been shut down.