Credit: Robert Jenrick
Robert Jenrick has accused French police of failing to act after he reported dozens of migrants with life jackets were preparing to cross the Channel.
The shadow justice secretary contacted the authorities after spotting a group of about 50 people holding life jackets at a bus stop near Calais.
But Mr Jenrick was told by an emergency call operator that they “do not think that [the police] would come” and no officer ever turned up.
The Tory frontbencher was also forced to cut short his visit to Loon-Plage migrant camp, located between Calais and Dunkirk, when a man “started throwing glass bottles” in his direction.
A total of 474 people crossed the Channel in eight small boats on Monday, as the illegal migration crisis continues to worsen under Sir Keir Starmer’s Government.
Credit: Robert Jenrick
In a video shared by Mr Jenrick, he could be seen spotting a group of “60 or 70 migrants holding life jackets” at about 8.30pm on Sunday.
The group was gathered at a bus stop with no sign of the French police and eventually boarded a bus.
Mr Jenrick and his team then followed the bus to Dunkirk. He said: “We think they’re in a little passageway behind these houses. The beach is just there.
“At daybreak, we find the migrants have gone,” Mr Jenrick said. “We don’t know where. There’s still no sign of any police. So I ring them.”
During his phone call to the police, Mr Jenrick said: “I’m in Dunkirk and I saw a large group of maybe 40 or 50 illegal migrants in the cemetery off the main road by the beach.”
After appearing to speak to another handler, a female call operator responded: “He does not think that they’re going to come, but he’s going to give the information to the police, then the police will decide.”
Mr Jenrick then confirmed no police officers arrived despite the three-year Anglo-French deal, first agreed in March 2023, to double the number of French officers on beaches.
He said: “We’ve given £800m to France and we didn’t see a police officer the whole day, and now we just phoned them and it doesn’t sound like they’ll even bother to come out.”
Mr Jenrick added: “Before daybreak, it became clear the migrants had departed. Their detritus was scattered around. So we hurried to the beach.
“The migrants were either on their way here, had moved to another beach or perhaps today’s journey had been called off for some unknowable reason. This wasn’t journalism to me or an academic exercise.
“I want to ‘stop the boats’ – that’s why I resigned from the last government – and a launch was now likely imminently. I called the French police, but they were dismissive of me reporting it. Nobody was deployed.”
Elsewhere in the video, Mr Jenrick said Britons were “told that these are refugees” in small boats, but that differed from his experience at the migrant camps.
When he asked one man if he thought he was going to be able to live in London if he crossed the Channel, the man nodded his head.
A second migrant who Mr Jenrick spoke to said he was not worried about getting on a small boat and making the dangerous journey across the Channel.
Writing for The Telegraph below, Mr Jenrick said: “What I saw in the camps, in the streets and on the beaches was sickening.
“I’ve been following this for years now, but the reality today is the worst I’ve ever seen it. The whole racket is a disgrace and the French are aiding and abetting it.”
Mr Jenrick said co-operation between the British and French governments on the issue amounted to “utter farce” on the part of the French response and “naivety” from Sir Keir.
He also claimed that he had to flee the migrant camp after a migrant attacked him with glass bottles.
“Many were polite to me, although some threatened me with violence,” Mr Jenrick wrote. “One, a gangster-like character, told me to leave, pressing himself up close to me in an attempt to intimidate me.
“Another made it clear my time in the camp was up and started throwing glass bottles at me. One hit the ground beside me, another skimmed past my head. I was forced to leave hastily.”
On Wednesday, the BBC was forced to drop a Thought for the Day segment on the Today programme in which a guest accused Mr Jenrick of xenophobia over his stance on illegal immigration.
Krish Kandiah, the founder of a refugee charity, said the shadow justice secretary had fuelled “fear of the stranger” by saying illegal migrants made him fearful for his daughters’ safety.
Mr Jenrick wrote: “Do you want men like this in our country? I don’t. For saying this I’ve been denounced on BBC Radio 4 as a ‘xenophobe’, but I suspect those trying to smear me haven’t been in that camp, seen those men and imagined them outside their kids’ school gates or in the local playground.
“Let’s stop pussy-footing around what’s happening. This is a national security emergency and finally needs to be treated as such.”
Earlier in the week, Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said he had a knife pulled on him during a visit to a migrant camp near Calais.
The shadow cabinet ministers’ visits to the camps by the French port city came after the number of small boat crossings under the Government passed 50,000 this week.
The site of the original Calais “jungle” camp was dismantled almost a decade ago, in October 2016, at the height of the European migrant crisis prompted by the civil war in Syria.
But new camps, likened to the original, are also home to thousands of migrants, with record numbers of people successfully making the journey from France to the UK in small boats.
Migration is a national security emergency, let’s stop pretending it’s not
By Robert Jenrick
As the sun rose over Dunkirk, I called the French police. Ten long hours of tracking had established that a group of migrants were hiding in a cemetery just a stone’s throw from the beach, waiting to cross the Channel.
This was surely the moment for the authorities to descend on the beach or search the adjacent streets to find the migrants and their smugglers? You know, to “smash the gang” that I had found.
“I will pass it on,” was the initial response. I pressed further – this was urgent. The police “will probably not come”, the 112 handler said dismissively. That was that. No further details sought. No interest shown.
I had come to northern France to see for myself what was really happening as the numbers crossing the Channel surge and communities back home bear the intolerable consequences of broken borders. It was just me and a cameraman.
What I saw in the camps, in the streets and on the beaches was sickening. I’ve been following this for years now, but the reality today is the worst I’ve ever seen it. The whole racket is a disgrace and the French are aiding and abetting it.
The previous afternoon, I went to one of the larger migrant camps, near Loon-Plage. The neighbouring villages are pleasant places, of the kind you may be familiar with in this part of France.
Yet just half a mile away lies a lawless, dark and dangerous space. Someone was shot dead here last month, the most recent of several murders. Stabbing are everyday occurrences. It is squalid, strewn with litter and ramshackle tents dotted through the trees. Migrants, almost all young men, sit around, staring at their smartphones, waiting. I didn’t see any French police presence whatsoever, nor anyone from authority. Just the migrants.
I made conversations with the few migrants who were willing to chat. Contrary to the fantasies spun by the pro-migration brigade, few speak English and those that do are open that they want to come to the UK for economic opportunities: a house, benefits, free healthcare. No one said they were fleeing persecution. They were in France after all. No one I questioned said they had any particular skill or profession. These are people who will self evidently be a massive strain on our country, diverting resources from struggling Brits.
Not a single person had heard of Keir Starmer’s farcical “one in, one out” arrangement with the French, although one had heard that Germany was deporting men back to Afghanistan and so wanted to get to soft touch Britain.
Many were polite to me, although some threatened me with violence. One, a gangster-like character, told me to leave, pressing himself up close to me in an attempt to intimidate me. Another made it clear my time in the camp was up and started throwing glass bottles at me. One hit the ground beside me, another skimmed past my head. I was forced to leave hastily.
Do you want men like this in our country? I don’t. For saying this I’ve been denounced on BBC Radio 4 as a “xenophobe”, but I suspect those trying to smear me haven’t been in that camp, seen those men and imagined them outside their kids’ school gates or in the playground. Let’s stop pussy-footing around what’s happening. This is a national security emergency and finally needs to be treated as such.
But this is not just about whether these people are good or bad, it’s that they have no business in our country. They shouldn’t be coming. If we changed our outdated human rights laws and deported illegal migrants, this would end.
What of the performance of the French, to whom we have given £800m? It’s dismal. I’ve never believed you rely on the kindness of strangers to secure your own borders. That’s why I’ve campaigned for a real deterrent of our own. I’ve always said the French could stop this tomorrow if only they wanted to. But the truth is even worse than that. They are sticking two fingers up at us and literally bussing illegal migrants towards the beaches.
As we left the camp, I spotted a group of 40 or 50 migrants walking along the railway tracks. They were holding life jackets. At the front and back, they were marshalled by people smugglers – the men Starmer says he’s smashing, but who operate with total impunity here.
I got in our car and followed them along the main road to a busy bus stop beside the supermarket, where they got on board. Imagine catching the bus outside Morrisons one afternoon and a group of migrants jump on with fluorescent orange life jacket under their arms. Not exactly subtle. The authorities know exactly who these people are, and what they’re doing, but still they facilitate their travel.
I followed the bus into the centre of Dunkirk, where they disembarked and began to walk in direction of the beach. Some were swift, others straggled behind. One was even in a wheelchair, life jacket on her lap.
Eventually they hunkered down for the night in a copse beside the local cemetery. I kept watch with my colleague, occasionally checking they were still there by creeping through the undergrowth. A few hundred yards away at Dunkirk beach there was no sign of the police along its wide esplanade. The patrols and the special equipment the UK funds was nowhere to be seen.
Before daybreak it became clear the migrants had departed. Their detritus was scattered around. So we hurried to the beach. The migrants were either on their way here, had moved to another beach or perhaps today’s journey had been called off for some unknowable reason. This wasn’t journalism to me or an academic exercise. I want to “stop the boats” – that’s why I resigned from the last government – and a launch was now likely imminently. I called the French police, but they were dismissive of me reporting it. Nobody was deployed.
As I sat on Dunkirk beach I felt anger at the utter farce of the French response and our government’s naivety in entertaining this madness – the State Visit, the “landmark returns deal”, the hundreds of millions wasted. Even the French’s own reporting suggests they’re stopping even fewer boats than last year. Two thousand illegal migrants have crossed in the last week alone. It’s all happening in plain sight. It’s not difficult to stop. The migrants are catching the public bus and the French know it.
But my main feeling was of shame at the astonishing weakness of our own country and its gutless leaders. We, the country that has triumphed so many times against so many foes, seem to have decided this issue – jumped up gangsters and rubber dinghies in the English Channel – is so uniquely complex and challenging, so enmeshed in unbreakable treaties and conventions, that it is impossible to resolve.
It isn’t. It mustn’t be. Change the law, leave the failed international organisations, deport the illegals migrants. We are an island nation for goodness sake, we can end this. And end it we must.
Robert Jenrick is the shadow justice secretary
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