French police have confirmed they have been instructed not to physically prevent migrants from launching boats bound for Britain, according to Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp, who confronted officers on a French beach this week while his team filmed the scene.
The exchange took place on Hardelot beach, near Boulogne, as dozens of migrants waded into the water to board a dinghy. Philp says he asked an officer directly why he wasn’t stopping the group.
The officer reportedly told him their instructions were simply to warn migrants that the crossing was dangerous, not to physically intervene. When Philp pressed further, asking whether officers had been ordered not to act, he says the response was that their role was to protect the migrants rather than stop them.
The incident coincided with a particularly heavy day of Channel crossings yesterday, with reports suggesting as many as 700 migrants made the journey in small boats, close to the highest single-day total recorded this year.
French authorities have long maintained that they avoid physically intervening once migrants reach shallow water, citing safety concerns and the risk of drownings. Officers have occasionally punctured dinghies with knives when they judged it safe to do so, and France has also established a specialist police unit tasked with intercepting smuggler-operated “taxi boats” before they reach the coast to pick up passengers.
Philp dismissed the officers’ explanation as indefensible, arguing that intervening in water only knee-deep posed no realistic danger. He also referenced an incident the previous day in which he said French naval forces conducted live-fire exercises uncomfortably close to a fishing vessel he was using to observe the crossings, calling it intimidating.
In response, the Home Office pointed to figures showing that Anglo-French cooperation has prevented more than 46,000 attempted crossings since the last general election, and pushed back on suggestions that French enforcement was failing wholesale.
The controversy comes against a backdrop of a £650 million, three-year agreement between London and Paris, signed by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, which has expanded French riot and public order policing by around 40 percent and introduced new maritime interception tactics targeting smuggling networks.
Despite this, more than 900 migrants have crossed in the past week alone, aided by calm seas and favourable weather. So far in 2026, crossings total roughly 13,376, a drop of about 45 percent compared with the same period last year.
Labour figures, including Andy Burnham, have pointed to the year-on-year decline as evidence the government’s approach is working, while acknowledging more remains to be done.
Philp, however, argued that favourable weather, not government policy, has been the real factor limiting crossings this year, and renewed Conservative calls to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights to allow rapid deportation of illegal arrivals.
The Home Office maintains that removals of small-boat migrants are at record levels, with almost 70,000 people removed or deported since the last election.
However, the Centre for Migration Control claims this in “spin”. They have issued a statement saying:
“The Home Office claims it has removed or deported 70,000 people. Here are the facts: 35% left without officials even realising. 26% were paid to leave. Just 25% were deportations. And 2/3 of these were Europeans. This is not control. This is spin.”
The Home Office has been approached for comment.
Main Image: Screengrab Footage from Chris Philp MP / X
