Human rights probe after police ‘slash rubber dinghy’ taking migrants to UK | World | News
French police are facing a human rights investigation after footage emerged showing officers slashing a migrant boat with knives to stop it crossing the Channel to Britain.
Video circulating on social media shows police officers cutting down a rubber boat that ran aground on a beach near Calais in northern France on Sunday. The rapid deflation of the ship caused more than 20 immigrants to return to shore.
While no one was injured during the incident, it was reported that the water level was below knee height at the time.
Immigrant charity Utopia 56 condemned the action as illegal, arguing that the boat was technically at sea and lives were being put at risk. Under French law, police are prohibited from intervening when a ship enters the water to protect those on board.
Utopia 56 has since submitted a report to France’s Defender of Rights, the country’s leading human rights watchdog, and filed a formal complaint with the IGGN National Gendarmerie Inspectorate, the body responsible for investigating allegations against police officers.
Utopia 56 wrote on Instagram: “This video was shot by one of our volunteers on Sunday in Oye-Plage.
“You can see cops cutting off a boat that was already in the water while people were still on board.
“This is an extremely dangerous practice for passengers but has been used regularly for several years.” A spokesman for the Pas-de-Calais gendarmerie stated that the intervention was “completely lawful” as the ship was already stranded on land.
“This was not a boat in the water; it had run aground and had buoyancy problems,” the spokesman said.
“Officers neutralized the boat to prevent it from returning to the sea and thus further endangering the lives of migrants during the crossing.”
Britain and France signed a £660 million deal last month promising to stop more ships before they are launched upstream to collect UK-bound migrants.
The cumulative number of crossings since 2018, when the small boat crisis first emerged, is around 200,000. According to the Sun, 92 people arrived on two ships on Monday, bringing the total to 199,920.
On Sunday, the bodies of a woman and a teenage girl were found aboard a migrant boat that ran aground on the French coast. Both are believed to have died from crushing or drowning after the ship’s engine exploded. Both victims are thought to be Sudanese nationals.
