Force is ill-equipped to deal with ‘violence’ from migrants and spends British money on wrong equipment
France’s efforts to stop the migrant boats are dysfunctional in the face of extreme violence orchestrated by people-smuggling gangs, a policing chief has admitted.
Marc Alegre, who represents officers in Calais and Dunkirk, said efforts by police and gendarmes were disjointed, plagued by a lack of training, faced shortages of recruits and spent British money on the wrong type of equipment.
He said his Unité police union was pushing for the French government to set up dedicated police units to specialise in tackling immigration and taking on the people smugglers so that they could reverse the record level of migrant small-boat crossings this year.
The admission came as 1,097 migrants crossed the Channel on Saturday in 17 boats, close to the daily record this year of 1,195 on May 31.
It takes the total past 30,000, up 36 per cent on last year’s figure at the same point and the highest number since the first arrivals in 2018.
Mr Alegre said officers’ lives were being put at risk by the unprecedented violence by migrants, who were encouraged by the people smugglers to attack officers with petrol and smoke bombs, stones and burning life jackets and to vandalise police vehicles.
The ongoing clashes between police and migrants meant police were running out of tear gas, grenades and vehicles.
“Police are pelted with stones practically every night. We’re short of cars because they’re vandalised by migrants, who the smugglers and traffickers order to throw stones at us to slow us down,” he said.
“I have colleagues who are regularly injured, who go to hospital because they’re doing this job. We use grenades and tear gas to stop the migrants, but they throw stones, smoke bombs and burning life jackets at us. All our vehicles are damaged. We’re practically out of ammunition. It’s not easy every day, every single day.
“Last year, two night-shift officers were surrounded by migrants and almost got burned to death. The migrants had set fire to the place with bottles of petrol. They were dog handlers. Two against 60. They risked their lives to prevent a boat from reaching England. Is it worth dying burned alive to let a boat pass? Would you?
He conceded there were significant “coordination” problems between different forces policing the northern French coast, which remained too “compartmentalised”. He said that police lacked any specific “training” on how to handle the migrant crisis.
It comes after the number of migrants crossing the Channel topped 30,000 in record time. Some 1,097 migrants crossed on Saturday, the highest daily number for four months and bringing the total for 2025 to 30,100.
Reinforcements sent in the summer months and dedicated only to tackling migrant crossings were mostly not from the area so did not know it as well as local police, who continued to have a “dual mission” of fighting crime and dealing with migrants.
“That’s not good for the French taxpayer,” he said. “In my opinion, we need to create special units that would work all year round, covering the entire border from the Belgian border to Boulogne, both the police and the gendarmerie, but working only on the beaches.
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Featured image: Sky News
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