People smugglers deploy new tactics to evade French police
People smugglers are using lorries to transport migrants to beaches in an attempt to outwit French border police and gendarmes.
The gangs are putting dozens of migrants into the lorries along with a dinghy so that they can avoid detection by police spotters, drones and night-vision cameras when they are driven to the beaches for launch.
Police and gendarmes have previously been able to track the migrants as they walked to the beach to hide in the dunes ready for the arrival of 'taxi boats', which are brought from further down the coast or inland rivers and waterways.
The new tactics come ahead of plans by the French interior ministry for officers from the elite Compagnie de Marche to intercept the 'taxi boats' at sea. The strategy is expected to be ready in time for the Anglo-French summit in London starting on July 8.
Until now, the French have refused to intervene in the water because they claim maritime laws prevent them from taking action that could put lives at sea at risk.
Hidden in plain sight
There have also been instances of gangs driving the dinghies to the shore by car before dumping the vehicle. It is thought this tactic reduces the chance of the boat being intercepted and punctured it before it can get into the sea.
On Tuesday morning, smugglers drove a Volvo estate on to the beach with a dinghy strapped to its roof, which was swiftly taken off and launched into the sea.
French police also discovered a dinghy buried in the sand.
A source close to the French border force's strategic planning said: 'This week we failed to stop a departure that took us by surprise at Etaples, because it's apparently a new modus operandi that has been put in place; this involves delivering migrants in trucks with boats inside, so they are brought directly to the beach and the operation is carried out very, very quickly.
'So this time, unlike last time, we were unable to intercept the truck, which escaped our surveillance. We didn't detect it, so they departed from Étaples. There were around 30 migrants. They were taking water so it's far from sure whether they managed to cross.'
'We've had trucks with huge numbers of migrants inside, arriving at the last minute from far away. We can't stop all the trucks driving around there either. So this allows them to escape our vigilance.'
Some 17,278 migrants have arrived so far this year, up 40 per cent on last year and the highest to this point in the year since the first arrivals in 2018.
The source said the forecasts for crossings were 'favourable' through to at least Friday. 'Unfortunately, the smugglers have the same forecast as us, so we know what to expect,' they said.
'It has nothing to do with the weather; it's all about conditions at sea. The reason that we have seen more crossings and attempted crossings this year is that there have been more such windows of opportunity.'
The source said the aim was to stop two thirds of the boats, although figures released last month suggested the number of migrants being stopped had fallen to fewer than 40 per cent.
They added that the French were adapting their tactics to tackle the 'taxi boats', but said the length of the coastline and inland waterways from which they could be launched was so immense that it was difficult to cover.
'Faced with this situation, we are further adapting our measures, but it requires a lot of men and equipment as we have to follow migrant groups to check for nearby taxi boat,' they said.
'We can't just patrol the waterways; a boat can be hidden in the forest and arriving discreetly along the coast. Traffickers have understood that once a boat is in the water, we don't intervene under current maritime law.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Times
3 hours ago
- Times
Starmer urged to consider one-in, one-out migrant exchange scheme
Sir Keir Starmer has been urged to use next month's UK-France summit to strike a one-in, one-out migrant returns deal. A report by the Migration Policy Institute, a global immigration think tank based in Washington DC, has set out detailed proposals for France and the UK to pursue before the summit. It proposes setting up a series of hubs across France which would screen asylum seekers for eligibility for the UK. Under the plans, France would take back one small boat migrant for each asylum seeker resettled to the UK from the hubs. It would be modelled on the United States' Safe Mobility Offices scheme, which was introduced by the Biden administration in 2023 across countries in South and Central America to screen migrants for asylum before they are exploited by people smugglers and trafficked across borders. It helped individuals find support and access a wide range of services in Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Guatemala and was credited with a reduction in illegal migration from the countries. In April France opened the door to taking back Channel migrants for the first time after Bruno Retailleau, the French interior minister, said that it would 'send a clear message' to others planning to make the journey. • Chaos on a French beach as police try to stop migrants His comments have raised hopes among officials and ministers in the UK government that a breakthrough is possible after failed attempts by successive UK governments to persuade France to agree to take back migrants who have crossed the Channel in small boats. More than 100 migrants are estimated to have crossed the Channel on Thursday, taking the total number of arrivals over the last nine days to more than 2,500. A total of 17,278 have arrived so far this year, up 50 per cent compared with last year. Downing Street admitted earlier this week that the situation in the Channel was 'deteriorating'. The Migration Policy Institute report proposes that the hubs in France would prioritise individuals with connections in Britain and those from countries with high asylum grant rates such as Sudan, which has a 98 per cent acceptance rate, and Eritrea, which has an 86 per cent grant rate. It recommends starting with a pilot programme that would exchange one migrant back to France for each asylum seeker going the other way following successful screening. The programme should operate with a monthly quota that is linked to the numbers returned to France from the UK. • How small boats crisis is linked to rise in rough sleeping The think tank said that the scheme would provide predictable admissions numbers that the UK government could communicate clearly to the public and would regain control of its borders. The report suggests using artificial intelligence to help support processing migrants' applications at the hubs. It argues that such a system would strengthen the deterrent effect of a returns agreement between the two countries because it would provide a viable and safe alternative to smuggler-facilitated crossings for a segment of the population most at risk of making such journeys. It would also reduce the danger of migrant journeys for the most vulnerable migrants who are most likely to be granted asylum, thereby saving lives. The detailed report also recommends creating a bilateral digital screening pilot that would mirror the EU's Eurodac scheme, which shares the fingerprints and other details of asylum seekers. • French police tear-gas child migrants trying to board dinghy This Eurodac-lite scheme would enable British border officials to check the biometrics of arrivals in the UK against the Eurodac system and thereby facilitate re-admissions from the UK to France. French liaison officers could be stationed at UK intake sites with secure tablets granting read‑only access to Eurodac data. The report said that combining re-admissions with a viable legal alternative held the best chance of curtailing the pull factors for these crossings. The UK-France summit, to be held on July 8-10, is also expected to rubber stamp new French police tactics allowing officers to intercept migrant boats up to 300 metres into the water. However, Care4Calais, the charity that led the successful legal challenge against the Rwanda policy, has said it is considering legal action against the plans. The Migration Policy Institute also proposes that France and the UK operate shared charter flights to reduce the possibility of secondary attempts to cross the Channel. Insufficient flight capacity is one of the major obstacles for France's attempts to deport migrants, according to the report.
Times
3 hours ago
- Times
France blocks move to include cousins in definition of ‘incest'
Nine out of ten French people want to extend the legal definition of incest to include cousins, but the move is being blocked by ministers fearful of igniting religious tensions. The government is said to be concerned that if it changed the incest law, it would also have to outlaw cousin marriages, which are rare in France as whole but common in some communities. A poll by Ipsos for Face à l'Inceste, the anti-incest association, found that 93 per cent of respondents wanted the notion to include cousins along with parents, grandparents, siblings, aunts and uncles. The poll was commissioned as part of a campaign to tighten laws on incest in a country that has been notoriously slow to address what was long a taboo subject. The word incest did not appear the criminal law code until 2010. Incest is now considered an aggravating factor in rape or sexual assault cases, but there is still no blanket ban on it, as there is in the UK. However, marriages involving parents, grandparents, siblings and aunts and uncles are outlawed. Critics say the country's ambiguous approach to incest has caused widespread damage, and studies show that about one in ten French people are victims. Fathers and fathers-in-law constitute 32.7 per cent of the perpetrators, according to research in 2020, followed by uncles on 17.9 per cent. Face à l'Inceste says that up to 20 per cent of incestuous assaults are committed by cousins. Corentin Legras, a researcher at the School of Higher Social Sciences Studies, agreed, saying sexual assaults by older cousins were widespread, notably during family get-togethers. France's Independent Commission on Incest and Sexual Violence Against Children seized upon these findings to press the government to include cousins within the legal definition of incest. But ministers refused. Legras said: 'A relationship cannot be incestuous if there is a possibility of marriage afterwards.' Ministers are said to be reluctant to ban cousin marriages, which remain common in France's Romany community, which is estimated at up to 350,000 people. Cousin marriages are also occasional among Muslim immigrant populations and rare but not unheard-of among traditional Catholics. Christine Boutin, 81, who was housing minister between 2007 and 2009 in the centre-right government of the day, is married to Louis, her first cousin, for instance. She angrily rejects suggestions that their relationship is incestuous. They have three children.
Daily Mail
3 hours ago
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE The 'Farminator' who rounds up illegal migrants: Farmer reveals he dealt with 5,000 stowaways on his land and says Keir Starmer 'treats them like royalty'
A father-of-four dubbed 'the Farminator' for rounding up 50 migrants hiding in his fields every week has hit out at Keir Starmer, claiming the PM 'treats them like royalty'. Chris Gadsden, 70, hit the headlines ten years ago as he collared hundreds of suspected stowaways sneaking into his fields in Bedfordshire. The groups of men had crossed into his farm after being dropped off at the nearby M1 services, following a 125-mile journey from the Dover ferry hidden inside lorries. Chris, who has run the farm for 38 years alongside his wife Lianne, 67, has even found an encampment in the woods close to his home – complete with water bottles and food wrappers showing people had been living there. He says as many as 10 still trespass across his farm every week - equivalent to 5,000 over the past decade. He believes the number is now decreasing because they have found an 'easier' route to get to the UK. Chris told MailOnline: 'They've found another way in where they seem to be more welcomed. They're taking the easy route, coming over on the boats. 'Coming in on boats they are given high vis, taken off to where they need to go, treated like royalty above our own people. 'The country needs someone that actually does something to deter them from coming over, because at the minute it's a free-for-all. 'I'd like to go down to the Houses of Parliament and say my piece there. I would sit there and I'd tell them: 'Face up to reality.' Chris' farm has been a migrant hotbed for more than three decades. He was first alerted to it by police knocking on his door wanting to conduct a survey. On Monday this week, 228 people in four boats successfully made the perilous crossing across the world's busiest shipping lane. The day after a further 489 people in eight boats arrived - pushing the yearly total over 17,000. Photos of migrants on his farm show them trekking through his crops and sheltering from the sun under a bush, while groups of men laugh as they are confronted. In others, a police dog jumps up as cops collar a suspect, while a migrant grins at the camera and offers a cheeky thumbs up from the back of a lorry. Chris now says he is scared for his safety as he nears old age – and the migrants keep on coming. He told MailOnline: 'There are still immigrants coming off. Ten years ago I was younger – now, I don't walk it as far so I don't survey it as much. But they are still coming in. 'It got worse and worse and worse to the extent where it was invading our privacy and our way of life. 'But for me to go out there and look for them now is a bit of a task now. If I jumped on the quad and went around the fields and had a good look, I'd probably find clothes. 'One of my sons, in the second wood around the back, when he walked around it, found an encampment inside. There were bottles of water and that sort of stuff there. 'I feel more threatened now because my abilities are more limited. But don't get me wrong, I wouldn't run. That's a sure fact.' Chris, despite living 125 miles from Dover, has even been forced to brandish a shotgun and shoot into the air after he was confronted with a group of migrants outside his door. Toddington Services is often one of the first stops for lorry drivers coming from the Port of Dover. When he escorted immigrants back to his house, Chris said he would give them food and water as they waited for the authorities. Chris continued: 'I was tolerating them for years, until one day my missus took the dog for a walk down the lane. I was back working on the tractor when she rang me up and said: 'You'd better get round here quick.' 'I went round to the bottom gate and three blokes ran from where she was, and then I ran up the side of the field and stopped all the others. 'That's when it really kicked off. It felt that this was becoming a real threat. They jumped out of lorries and their first stop was the farm, hiding in the barns. 'We did feel threatened at one time. One day I saw lights at our bottom gate. I put the cameras on and there was one minibus parked on the drive, two minibuses down here. A group of men wait for the police in Chris' office. When he escorted immigrants back to his house, Chris said he gave them food and water as they waited for the authorities 'There were all these men blokes who couldn't talk English and they started marching up towards the house – not being funny, I had to put one out. I shot back up into the house and got the shotgun out, came out and let one off in the air. 'My wife was on the phone to the police – they didn't like that I had let a shot off but that was a big threat.' He continued: 'We were breaking the chain from them coming in to where they were trying to go. There used to be a white transit van that would come over and pick them up. 'They'd have a phone number written in on their hand and as soon as they got over here they just rang it.' Chris says that all but one of the migrants he has seen are young men. It comes after Darren Jones, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, sparked fury when he claimed 'the majority of the people in these boats are children, babies and women' – something Chris dismissed as 'not true'. He continued: 'There was only one time that a woman was in the same vicinity, when Somalians came over. Other than that it's all been men. Only men.
