British Man Who Witnessed Illegal Migrants Gathering to Board a Dinghy to the UK Reveals the Reason They Couldn’t Be Stopped

French police officers stood by and did not step in as dozens of migrants gathered on a beach waiting to cross the English Channel to Britain in small boats, according to Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp.

Mr Philp, who travelled to Hardelot-Plage, south of Boulogne, to watch the situation unfold, said he witnessed large groups of migrants waiting on the shoreline while people smugglers prepared to collect them using inflatable dinghies. He claimed French gendarmes remained nearby but did not take action to stop the migrants from entering the water or boarding the boats.

The Conservative MP has repeatedly criticised Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood over the UK’s £662 million agreement with France, arguing that the deal is failing to stop illegal Channel crossings. He believes the money should be delivering stronger action on French beaches to prevent boats from leaving in the first place.

Sharing footage from the beach on X, formerly known as Twitter, Mr Philp said he had spoken directly to a group of French gendarmes. He claimed one officer told him on camera that they had been instructed not to intervene when migrants gathered to board boats.

He also alleged that several non-governmental organisations were present at the scene and claimed they were helping to support or facilitate migrants before the crossings, although the organisations involved have not publicly responded to those claims.

According to Mr Philp, around 100 migrants were gathered at the beach, with many already standing in the sea waiting for what he described as a “taxi boat” that was expected to arrive from Dieppe further down the French coast. These boats are often used by people-smuggling gangs to pick up migrants from different beaches before attempting the journey across the Channel.

At one stage, Mr Philp walked into the shallow water and stood only a few feet away from the waiting migrants while filming the scene. He said most of those he saw appeared to be young men from countries in sub-Saharan Africa, with only a small number of exceptions.

He said the events he witnessed were further evidence that the Government’s agreement with France was not achieving its intended goal. “Shabana Mahmood’s deal with the French is not working,” he said, arguing that migrants were still able to gather openly and board boats despite increased funding and cooperation.

Similar scenes were reported at Gravelines beach on the same day, where groups of migrants were seen running into the sea to board inflatable dinghies before setting off across the Channel.

After taking office, Labour scrapped the previous Conservative government’s Rwanda asylum policy, which would have sent some asylum seekers to Rwanda while their claims were processed. The party had opposed the scheme throughout the lengthy legal battles that delayed its implementation.

Instead, Labour has focused on tackling the criminal gangs behind the crossings by increasing cooperation between police forces, intelligence agencies and law enforcement authorities in both the UK and France. Ministers have said the priority is to disrupt people-smuggling networks rather than rely on overseas deportation schemes.

The strategy initially appeared to have little effect, with last year recording the second-highest number of Channel crossings on record at around 42,000 arrivals.

However, this year the number of arrivals has fallen to around 13,350 over the same period, representing a drop of about 45 per cent compared with last year. Experts say several factors may have contributed to the decline, including long periods of strong winds and poor weather in the Channel during the winter and early spring, as well as successful operations by police that have targeted trafficking gangs and disrupted some of their activities.