“The Ministry of the Interior fully trusts the prefect and the internal security forces. (…) The gendarmes, with water to the knees, intervened to save people in danger. »» Saturday, July 5, Place Beauvau, we try to circumscribe the controversy. Images broadcast the day before by the English chain BBC show gendarmes, in Pas-de-Calais, advance on foot in the sea to a pneumatic canoe loaded with several dozen migrants and die with a stab.
The British government immediately congratulated a “Hardening” From the action of the French to prevent crossings of the Channel, a company to which London contributes through the payment of at least 760 million euros in Paris since 2018. “We see new tactics used to disturb these boats before they start their trip,” Rejoiced a spokesperson for the Labor Prime Minister, Keir Starmer.
The puncture of boats at sea is not an unprecedented practice. An investigation published in March 2024, The world (in partnership with non -profit media Lighthouse Reports) already documented it. At the time, the authorities nevertheless challenged it. Under pressure from the British and faced with the round of the Channel crossings (more than 20,000 arrivals since the beginning of the year), the Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, is decided to cross a new course.
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Source: Lemonde