Revealed: UK-funded French forces putting migrants’ lives at risk with small-boat tactics

French police funded by the UK government have endangered the lives of vulnerable migrants by intercepting small boats in the Channel, using tactics that search and rescue experts say could cause a “mass casualty event”.

Shocking new evidence obtained by the Observer, Lighthouse Reports, Le Monde and Der Spiegel reveals for the first time that the French maritime police have tried physically to force small boats to turn around – manoeuvres known as “pullbacks” – in an attempt to prevent them reaching British shores.

Newly obtained footage, leaked documents and witness testimonies show that the French authorities have used aggressive tactics including circling a migrant boat, causing waves to flood the dinghy; ramming into a small boat while threatening passengers with a large tank of pepper spray; and puncturing boats when they are already at sea, forcing migrants to swim back to shore.

The French authorities have previously refused the UK’s requests for them to carry out interceptions at sea, stating that they contravened international maritime law. But evidence indicates there has been an escalation in the use of these tactics since last summer.

Rishi Sunak has pledged to “stop the boats” crossing the Channel and has promised hundreds of millions of pounds to France to pay for more surveillance and border guards to prevent people making the journey. Last Wednesday the government’s safety of Rwanda (asylum and immigration) bill suffered several defeats in the House of Lords, delaying the prime minister’s plan to see flights for Kigali take off until after Easter.

Ministers claim that the bill will act as a deterrent to all those crossing the Channel from northern France to the UK. In the first video obtained and verified for this investigation, a police boat in Dunkirk harbour circles close to a dinghy holding about 25 people, creating a wake that floods the boat.

The police vessel is seen advancing towards the dinghy at speed, before turning sharply to create waves, circling and coming back again. Migrants are seen wearing foam-packed lifejackets and attempting to bale water out using their shoes.

Sources confirmed that the police patrol vessel used to carry out the manoeuvre seen in the video was bought by the French authorities with funding provided by the UK government under the “Sandhurst treaty”, a bilateral border security deal signed at the Royal Military Academy in 2018.

“This is a textbook pushback – the same as we see in Greece,” said one search and rescue expert who was shown the footage. “That one manoeuvre alone could cause a mass casualty event. The water is deep enough to drown in. I’ve seen this in the central Mediterranean many times, but this is the first time I’ve ever seen anything like this happening in the Channel.”

Previous evidence has shown how the Greek coastguard has forced boats carrying migrants back into Turkish waters in the Aegean Sea, in some cases by manoeuvring around them at high speed to create waves.

Two senior UK Border Force sources confirmed that the tactic could lead to multiple deaths and injuries. “If the blades [of the French boat] make contact with the vessel, it will slash right through it,” said one operational Border Force official.

“The other thing is a collision. The weight and the force of that vessel could ride straight over the top of the rib. It would knock the passengers out, knock them unconscious and into the water. It could potentially lead to death. I can’t believe any mariner could condone that.”

Maritime experts added that they would be “very surprised” if Border Force and HM Coastguard were not aware of these tactics being used, with one adding: “One hundred per cent, someone high up will be aware of this.”

In a second video, members of the French gendarmerie drive alongside a dinghy in a speedboat about 12 miles from the French coast, threatening to use a large tank of pepper spray against a boat carrying migrants. They then proceed to ram their vessel into the dinghy. “They don’t even know who’s on board – whether there’s someone asthmatic that you’re using pepper spray against or pregnant women,” said a Border Force official. “That could harm people.”

In evidence of a third attempted pullback, a complaint filed by a member of the French customs coastguard to the public prosecutor in Boulogne-sur-Mer alleges that on 11 August 2023, police officers ordered a National Society of Sea Rescues (SNSM) crew to puncture a small boat that had already set sail. In an email seen by this investigation, the complainant, Rémi Vandeplanque, states that the SNSM crew “obviously refused” to do this, adding that the risk of drowning if they had done so was “obvious and imminent”.

Testimony from several sources who boarded small boats bound for the UK supports the claims that French police have used such tactics. “There were four of them [French gendarmes] on the boat,” said one man, who was from India. “They went round the boat in a circle and then they stabbed the boat and left. We had to swim for about 10 minutes … We nearly died.” On 9 February 2024, the man complained to the French human rights ombudsman. The incident is under investigation.

Sources within France’s interior ministry have described the UK government’s “enormous pressure daily” for the French maritime police to prevent small boat departures, with one French civil servant describing the pressure as “intense” and “nonstop”.

Another senior civil servant, who was in post until the end of 2020, added: “As far as the British were concerned, the boats had to be caught at sea. They sometimes insisted on it.”

In September last year, then immigration minister Robert Jenrick said in the House of Commons that “there is more that we need the French to do for us”, pointing to a recent trip to Belgium, where he said the authorities had “been willing to intercept in the water small boats leaving its shores”. He added: “That has proven decisive. Small boats from Belgian waters are now extremely rare, so that is an approach that we encourage the French to follow.”

In August 2021, during a visit to the Greek island of Samos, then-home secretary Priti Patel went out on patrol with the Greek coastguard, which is known for its use of aggressive pushbacks in the Aegean.

“She came back invigorated,” said a Home Office source with knowledge of the trip. “They were very aggressive, had a success rate of detection and were swift in how they processed them [asylum seekers]. She liked their posturing of ‘protecting borders’ and working with the military, though there was recognition that a lot of this wouldn’t be lawful in the UK.”

Britain has allocated more than £700m to France to prevent irregular migration since 2014.

At a summit in March 2023, Sunak announced that Britain would give France £500m over three years to fund additional border guards and a new detention facility, as well as video surveillance cameras, drones and night-vision binoculars, among other equipment.

The package was, according to several sources at the French interior ministry, a turning point. “This has put the relationship between the two countries on a contractual footing,” said one senior official.

Last month the UK signed a working agreement with the European border agency Frontex to bolster intelligence sharing and deploy UK Border Force officials to coordinate the Channel response.

When contacted by this investigation, the prefecture for the north of France confirmed that a police boat had circled a dinghy and that the intervention aimed to “dissuade passengers” from approaching the open sea, adding: “It’s the only time we’ve been able to intercept a small boat using this manoeuvre and it was a deterrent. All the migrants were recovered and the smugglers arrested.”

A Home Office spokesperson said: “An unacceptable number of people are crossing the Channel and we will do whatever is necessary to end these perilous and fatal journeys. We remain committed to building on the successes that saw arrivals drop by more than a third last year.

“Not only have we introduced tougher legislation and agreements with international partners, but we continue to work closely with our French counterparts, who are working tirelessly to save lives and stop the boats.”