MIGRANTS SAY FRENCH FORCES TEAR-GASSED THEM ON WAY TO CAMPS AFTER FAILING TO CROSS CHANNEL

A group of around 50 migrants say they were tear-gassed by French security forces after failing to cross the Channel to the UK on a small boat, according to reports provided to a charity.

The group, which included some children, were reportedly on their way back to makeshift camps in the Pas-De-Calais region when they were allegedly sprayed by French gendarmes last week.

Video footage allegedly taken at the scene shows people wearing red lifejackets appearing to suffer the after-effects of tear gas.

Some are seen doubled up on the side of the road and holding their hands to their eyes, with one young girl sat on the ground and a child heard crying.

A woman is heard saying to the gendarmerie officers, some of whom have their truncheons drawn, that “small children and women” were among those sprayed.

Utopia 56, a French charity which shared the footage, said that at least six children were part of the group, and that migrants told them the incident had been unprovoked as they were walked away from the beach.

Flore Judet, a communications officer for the non-governmental organisation (NGO), told i: “Testimonies say the people already couldn’t manage to cross. We don’t know if they were stopped by the police or the boat broke.

“They told us that they were just walking on the road going back to the camps and there was a few families and they teargassed everyone.

“I don’t know why. They teargassed everyone, even the small children for no reason. The family who sent us the video, it’s not the first time they have had problems with the police.”

In a separate incident the same morning, French media have also reported that 38 migrants were arrested after a failed crossing from Oye-Plage, with three gendarmes injured after their buggy overturned after stones were thrown by some migrants.

French officials in Calais said gendarmes were “violently attacked with stones and iron bars”.

Utopia56 said this group had also been teargassed before launching the boat, which was badly damaged by heavy waves.

Last month, i reported how migrants claimed that French police fired tear gas into small boats as they attempted to cross the Channel and left them freezing and soaked on beaches.

The charity had seen a spike in reports from migrants hoping to cross the Channel of tear gas being used, Ms Judet said, with its volunteer emergency teams now carrying liquid to counter the effects of tear gas on people’s eyes.

“It feels like it is getting more and more often,” said Ms Judet. “It’s testimony, pictures. We’ve seen a boat in flames on the beach and surrounded by the things they throw to release the tear gas.

“Violence, everything, is allowed now on the coast to stop people crossing even though its children, women. It seems like violence is not a a problem anymore. Now it’s all the time.

“It’s shocking, but it’s usual. It never seems normal, but it’s so frequent.”

Last week, Captain Pierre-Felix Martin, from the Saint-Omer gendarmerie company, told French newspaper La Voix du Nord that three officers were slightly injured in the other incident after their buggy swerved onto sand.

“The gendarmes were in a buggy. The migrants stoned the buggy, causing the driver to lose control. The buggy overturned and the gendarmes, once on the ground, were attacked,” he told the newspaper.

“In recent months, they have become more violent towards the police (…). You have to imagine that they have crossed countries at war and that for them, this is the finish line. But the job of the gendarmes, like that of the police, is to prevent the departure.”

In April, the commander of the Pas-de-Calais gendarmerie group, General Frantz Tavart, said an officer was stabbed as he tried to puncture a boat.

According to the most recent Home Office figures, six boats carrying more than 300 migrants landed in the UK between 24 and 28 May, with more than 7,500 people making the journey so far this year.

Last year, a record 45,728 people crossed the English Channel on small boats, a leap of more than 60 per cent on the previous year.

i has contacted the Gendarmerie and French police for comment.

2023-05-30T15:30:24Z dg43tfdfdgfd