French riot police demolish huge camp near Dunkirk full of migrants looking to cross to UK

The French police have a policy of moving in to dismantle any camp that grows too large or are in the same place for more than a few months.

The move has been condemned by the human rights group Utopia-56, which claims the police action "would worsen the suffering of hundreds of migrant men, women and children."

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The area around Dunkirk was home to a huge migrant camp, until its destruction at the hands of French police in 2021.

That camp, by the railway tracks at Grand-Synthe housed more than 1,500 migrants.

The area around Dunkirk is occupied mainly by Iraqi and Iranian Kurds, as well as many Afghan nationals.

The camps are often lawless, with people smuggling gang masters using weapons, including firearms to guard their territory.

French police have reported growing levels of violence in the camps in recent months, as rival people smuggling gangs fight to control the lucrative trade in small boat crossings.

The operation comes on the same morning that police discovered the body of an Eritrean migrant, 25 miles from Dunkirk, on a beach near Calais.

The 24-year-old woman had been trying to board one of four small boats that made it to the UK this morning, when she slipped and fell into the water.

The UK and France have been working together to clampdown on the number of migrants crossing the Channel.

French police officers have faced confrontation with some migrants.

Salih Taib Abdullah, 33, and Ahmed Omar Saleh Khater, 25, were sentenced at Canterbury Crown Court to a total of two years and two months’ imprisonment for attempting to arrive in the UK illegally.

The pair were involved in violent disorder on a beach near Calais in June.

French authorities appear to be ramping up efforts to dissuade migrants from making the perilous 21-mile trip.

Border force officials on the other side of the Channel are tethering buoys across rivers in an attempt to block smuggling gangs who have been using the inland waterways to evade the patrols of officers and the intense surveillance operating on the beaches.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman used a speech in the United States to double-down her position on illegal immigration.

She is expected to say that “seeking asylum and seeking better economic prospects are not the same thing” as she takes aim at the United Nations’ Refugee Convention.

In a pre-briefed extract of her speech, Braverman will add: “The status quo, where people are able to travel through multiple safe countries, and even reside in safe countries for years, while they pick their preferred destination to claim asylum, is absurd and unsustainable.

“Nobody entering the UK by boat from France is fleeing imminent peril. None of them have ‘good cause’ for illegal entry. The vast majority have passed through multiple safe countries, and in some instances have resided in safe countries for several years.

“In this sense, there is an argument that they should cease to be treated as refugees when considering the legitimacy of their onward movement.”