EXCLUSIVE: The Express spotted more than a dozen idle police vans as migrants launched a dinghy from a nearby beach.
Empty police vans parked in a hotel they are commonly stationed at. (Image: Phil Harris)
French police were seen idling on their phones as migrants prepared to board boats to cross to the UK. In addition, more than a dozen French police vans were parked idly in a hotel as hundreds of migrants prepared to make the Channel crossing. In Calais, there was a notable lack of presence from authorities across numerous towns where migrants camped, shopped and boarded buses. However, the Express spotted numerous police vehicles parked up in a B&B Hotel – where gendarmes are stationed – in the middle of the afternoon, while migrants travelled to the beaches from which they aimed to launch the following morning.
More than 1,200 migrants in 21 boats have made the journey from France to Britain since Thursday, the same day Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced his new “groundbreaking” dinghy deterrent. While aware of the frequently used boat launch spots, a limited number of French police vehicles were present in these areas.
Migrants in a dinghy near the shoreline of Gravelines beach. (Image: Phil Harris)
French police check their phones as migrants board dinghys. (Image: Phil Harris)
In the early hours of Saturday morning, one patrol vehicle carrying four police officers covered the beaches near Dunkirk. The Express spoke to the officers, who informed them of the spots where migrants commonly board dinghies.
Later that morning, a boat was spotted hovering on the shoreline of Gravelines Beach, carrying twelve young men, a spot frequently used by migrants.
The boat was launched from a narrow canal connected to the beach, the same place where a boat was launched the day before. Yet no police boat was seen on the canal to interfere, nor did they intervene when it initially entered the water.
The dinghy waited for just under an hour in the shallows of the sea as a group of gendarmes watched from the sand, choosing not to adopt their new puncturing method.
Hundreds of migrants were waiting in the dunes behind, yet when a number tried to make a run to the dinghy, police intervened with tear gas, causing them to retreat.
The dozen men onboard the boat, who may have been potential ringleaders, later abandoned the vessel and walked back to Gravelines on foot without interference from authorities who failed to follow the group.
Express reporter Lotti O’Brien spots the idle police vehicles as migrants camp nearby. (Image: Phil Harris)
The same morning, six boats carrying 317 migrants successfully left France and reached British shores, which comes after 353 making it across the day before, and 573 the day before that.
In the daytime, the Express hopped from town to town in Northern France to see where the migrants were heading. A bus full of migrants holding life jackets was heading to Calais, where they launched the following morning from a beach nearby.
No police vehicles or officers were seen in or near the area at that time of day.
Speaking to migrants near a camp in Loon-Plage, one man said he was planning to get on a boat on Saturday morning, when multiple vessels were launched. There were no authorities near these camps either.
