Police have seized assault rifles in migrant camps in northern France, a top border chief has revealed. Charlie Eastaugh, director of maritime and small boats at Border Security Command, said smugglers have been caught with guns amid bitter turf wars.
Violence on the French coast
Mr Eastaugh warned that violence has "become more and more common on the French coast over the last few years". He told LBC: "It's a very common occurrence to see large sticks being wielded and used against French officers, rocks thrown.
"There have been a number of firearms, quite serious assault rifles, seized in the migrant camps in northern France."
Gangs and turf wars
Officials believe the smuggling gangs are carrying assault rifles to control their "patches". Iraqi-Kurdish gangs control migrant smuggling operations from Calais to Dunkirk, this newspaper understands, with territory split up according to where the criminals are from, such as Erbil, Sulaimaniya, Ranya and Sharazoor.
Criminals from Ranya are said to control a large part of the territory. Smuggling gangs appear to have changed their tactics and started loading more people into single boats in recent times. Earlier this month, a record 230 people made the journey in a single boat.
Recent incidents and enforcement
Drone footage released on Thursday night showed police being pelted with rocks as they tried to stop a boat from launching. A beach buggy intercepted the asylum seekers as they tried to reach the water. Some split away from the main group, trying to thwart officers from slashing the dinghy.
Mr Eastaugh revealed that French officers stopped two dinghies at sea last Thursday before taking dozens of asylum seekers back. "Last Thursday alone, the French prevented, out of the public eye, two boats at sea and one boat on the land," he said. "And that was all three of the boats that tried to cross. So, 100% prevention and zero arrivals. And that's exactly what we're aspiring to every day."
Government message and statistics
Mr Eastaugh said new legislation passed by the Government has allowed authorities to crack down on specific endangerment offences. "Our message is really clear: that you are not beyond the arm of the law once you're on the French beach or once you're at sea. And this is exceptionally dangerous, and you're committing a criminal offence," he added.
Ministers are keen to stress that the number of successful crossings is going down. Some 15,897 migrants have crossed the Channel so far this year, down 43% on the same time last year, and an 18% drop from the same point in 2024.
On Thursday, officials claimed France has prevented 185 small-boat crossings in the first three months of Labour's £660million deal with Paris. This, they said, equated to 61% of crossing attempts. French officials also believe they had four weeks during which they stopped every attempt to launch a dinghy.
