ECAULT BEACH, France (AP) — Across the English Channel, the U.K.’s white cliffs beckon. On fine days, men and women with children in their arms and determination in their eyes can see the shoreline of what they believe will be a promised land as they attempt the perilous crossing clandestinely, ditching belongings to squeeze aboard flimsy inflatable boats that set to sea from northern France.
In a flash, on one recent crossing attempt, French police swooped in with knives, wading into the water and slashing the boat’s thin rubber — literally deflating the migrants’ hopes and dreams.
Some of the men put up dispirited resistance, trying to position themselves — in vain — between the boat and the officers’ blades. One splashed water at them, another hurled a shoe. Cries of “No! No!” rang out. A woman wailed.
But the team of three officers, one also holding a pepper-gas canister, lunged at the boat again and again, pitching some of those aboard into the surf as it quickly deflated. The Associated Press obtained video of the police boat-slashing, filmed on a beach near the French port of Boulogne.
Growing numbers are getting through France’s defenses
France’s northern coast has long been fortified against invasion, with Nazi bunkers in World War II and pre-French Revolution forts. Now, France is defending beaches with increasing aggression against migrants trying at a record pace to go the other way — out to sea, to the U.K.
Under pressure from U.K. authorities, France’s government is preparing to give an even freer hand to police patrols that, just last week, were twice filmed slashing boats carrying men, women and children.
The video obtained by AP was filmed Monday. Four days later, on Écault beach south of Boulogne, the BBC filmed police wading into the surf and puncturing another boat with box cutters, again pitching people into the water as it deflated.
An AP journalist who arrived moments later counted multiple lacerations and saw dispirited people, some still wearing life jackets, clambering back up sand dunes toward woods inland. There, AP had spent the previous night with families and men waiting for a crossing, sleeping rough in a makeshift camp without running water or other basic facilities. Exhausted children cried as men sang songs and smoked around a campfire.
The French Interior Ministry told AP that police haven’t been issued orders to systematically slash boats. But the British government — which is partly funding France’s policing efforts — welcomed what it called a “toughening” of the French approach. The U.K. is also pushing France to go further and let officers intervene against boats in deeper waters, a change the government in Paris is considering. Campaigners for migrant rights and a police union warn that doing so could endanger both migrants and officers.
Of the slashing filmed Friday by the BBC, the Interior Ministry said the boat was in distress, overloaded and riding low in the water, with migrants “trying to climb aboard from the back, risking being caught by the propeller.”
“The gendarmes, in water up to their knees, intervened to rescue people in danger, pull the boat to shore and neutralize it,” the ministry said.
For migrants, boat-slashing is infuriating
Around the campfire, the men stared into the flames and ruminated. Deniz, a Kurd with an infectious laugh and a deep singing voice, wanted more than anything to cross the channel in time to celebrate his 44th birthday in August with his 6-year-old daughter, Eden, who lives with her mother in the U.K. Like nearly all the migrating people that AP interviewed, surviving in camps that police frequently dismantle, Deniz didn’t want to give his full name.
Refused a short-stay U.K. visa, Deniz said he had no other option than the sea route, but four attempts ended with police wrecking the boats. He said that on one of those occasions, his group of around 40 people begged an officer patrolling alone to turn a blind eye and let them take to sea.
“He said, ‘No,’ nobody going to stop him. We could stop him, but we didn’t want, you know, to hurt him or we didn’t want to argue with him,” Deniz said. “We just let him, and he cut it with a knife.”
He believes that U.K. funding of French policing is turning officers into zealots.
“I say, ‘Because of the money, you are not France soldiers, you’re not France police. You are the English dogs now,” he said.
The cat-and-mouse between migrants and police
The coastal battle between police and migrants never lets up, no matter the hour or weather. Drones and aircraft watch the beaches and gendarmes patrol them aboard buggies and on foot. On Écault beach, a WWII Nazi gun emplacement serves as their lookout post.
Inland waterways have been sealed off with razor wire and floating barriers to prevent launches of so-called “taxi boats.” They motor to offshore pickup points, where waiting migrants then wade into the sea and climb aboard, children in their arms and on their shoulders.
AP saw a 6 a.m. pickup Friday on Hardelot beach south of Boulogne. Many dozens of people squeezed aboard, straddling the sausage-like inflated sides — one foot in the sea, the other in the boat. It left about a half-dozen people on the beach, some in the water, apparently for lack of room. Gendarmes on the beach watched it motor slowly away.
Campaigners who work with migrants fear that allowing police to intervene against boats farther offshore will panic those aboard, risking casualties. French officials are examining the possibility of police interventions up to 300 meters (980 feet) from the water’s edge.
“All that will happen is that people will take greater and greater risks,” said Diane Leon, who coordinates aid efforts for the group Médecins du Monde along the coast. “The police entering the water — this was something that, until now, we saw only rarely. But for us, it raises fears of panic during boarding or of boats arriving farther and farther out, forcing people to swim to reach the taxi boats.”
In an AP interview, police union official Régis Debut voiced concerns about potential legal ramifications for officers if people drown during police attempts to stop departures. He said officers weighed down by equipment could also drown.
“Our colleagues don’t want to cross 300 meters to intercept the small boats. Because, in fact, we’re not trained for that,” said Debut, of the union UNSA Police.
“You also need to have the proper equipment. You can’t carry out an arrest wearing combat boots, a police uniform and the bullet-proof vest. So the whole process needs to be reconsidered.”
Migrants say crossings are atrocious but worth the risk
Around the campfire, men laughed off the risks of the crossings that French authorities say claimed nearly 80 lives last year. They had nothing left to lose and the channel was just one more hardship after tortuous journeys to France filled with difficulties and misery, they said.
“We will never give up,” Deniz said.
According to U.K. government figures, more than 20,000 people made the crossing in the first six months of this year, up by about 50% from the same period in 2024, and potentially on course toward a new annual record. About 37,000 people were detected crossing in 2024, the second-highest annual figure after 46,000 in 2022.
Qassim, a 26-year-old Palestinian, messaged AP after crossing last week with his wife and their daughters, aged 6 and 4. The boat labored through waves for eight hours, he said.
“Everyone was praying,” he wrote. “We were patient and endured and saw death. The children were crying and screaming.”
“Now we feel comfortable, safe, and stable. We are starting a new page,” he wrote. “We will do our best to protect our children and ourselves and to make up for the difficult years we have been exposed to.”
___
Associated Press writer Jill Lawless in London contributed to this report.
___
Follow AP’s global migration coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/migration
