Latest news with #Calais
The Guardian
8 hours ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
French plans to stop small boats will lead to more deaths, says charity
Plans by French police to enter the sea to stop small boats carrying UK-bound asylum seekers willcause more deaths and will be challenged in the European courts, a French charity has said. Arthur Dos Santos, the coordinator of the refugee charity Utopia 56, said there would be an increase in the number of people who would take 'desperate' measures to reach the UK. The official, based in Calais, said the charity was examining the possibility of a legal challenge in the European courts to stop the tactics. Government sources have told the Guardian that French police would be authorised to tackle boats within 300 metres of the shore and in nearby waterways. The strategy aims to be ready in time for the Franco-British summit, which begins on 8 July. This coincides with the state visit to London of Emmanuel Macron, the French president. Over the past few days, French police have waded into the sea to stop asylum seekers from boarding boats, increasing speculation that police are already using the tactic. In one incident this week at Gravelines beach near Dunkirk, officers were shown waist deep in water, using CS gas, riot shields and batons, as they attempted to force a boat to return to the beach. Dos Santos said the French plan to harden its tactics against asylum-seekers and smugglers would result in more deaths. 'When police enter the sea, it will cause more deaths, more people will drown as they try to get away before being caught and forced back to the beach. There will be more violence, as some people fight back, and the people attempting to reach England will find other ways to try to get to the UK. This will not stop them, but it will make the crossings much more dangerous,' he said. The scheme is intended to give the French authorities the power to halt dinghies that 'taxi' up to beaches from nearby waterways. Until now, guidelines prevent French police from intervening offshore unless it is to rescue passengers in distress. In practice, the policy means officers can stop boats leaving the beach by puncturing them, but are restricted once they are in the water. Dos Santos said the tactic would face legal challenges in the European courts, with lawyers examining human rights laws and the UN convention on the law of the sea. 'This policy will be taken to the European courts. We will look very closely at this, as will other organisations,' he said. A British charity that operates in France told the Guardian two weeks ago it planed to explore possible legal challenges to stop the tactic. Steve Smith, the chief executive of Care4Calais, said: 'When the last Tory government tried to do pushbacks in the Channel, Care4Calais initiated a legal challenge and won. Any attempt to introduce interceptions in French waters must face the same level of resistance.'
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
CRC's AmRisc establishes Calais Reciprocal Insurance Exchange
AmRisc, a subsidiary of CRC Group, has launched Calais Reciprocal Insurance Exchange to strengthen its coastal commercial property insurance offerings. The exchange, domiciled in Illinois, US, is backed by $100m in funding to provide additional capacity for AmRisc's excess and surplus (E&S) property insurance portfolio. AM Best has assigned Calais a financial strength rating of A- (Excellent), according to a statement from CRC Group, a US-based specialty insurer. AmRisc will act as the exclusive managing general agency for Calais, which joins AmRisc's existing panel of carriers that offer coastal commercial E&S property and California Difference in Conditions insurance. The transaction was funded by Stone Point Capital, CD&R, and other financial and strategic investors. AmRisc was advised by Howden Capital Markets & Advisory, which served as the exclusive financial advisor, while Willkie Farr & Gallagher provided legal and regulatory counsel. AmRisc CEO Brian Reid "We are pleased to announce the formation of Calais Reciprocal Insurance Exchange, which, alongside our existing high-quality carrier partners, will further allow us to serve the coastal commercial E&S property market that we have supported for more than 25 years." The addition of Calais is expected to provide policyholders with a broader range of options in coastal regions. AmRisc president and COO Laura Beckmann stated: "With the establishment of Calais, AmRisc is introducing a fresh source of capacity to the market for brokers while ensuring greater long-term stability for policyholders." Established in 2000, AmRisc specialises in underwriting coastal commercial property insurance, with more than $2bn in E&S annual written premium and over $600m in admitted annual written premium, to date. Last month, CRC Group acquired ARC Excess & Surplus, a specialist wholesale insurance distributor. "CRC's AmRisc establishes Calais Reciprocal Insurance Exchange " was originally created and published by Life Insurance International, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Twenty-four hours after failing to board a small boat to get to England, a determined migrant on crutches finally succeeded
Less than 24 hours after abandoning his attempt to head for Britain, a desperate migrant on crutches finally succeeded in his bid to cross the channel. The bearded middle-aged man, who could only hobble towards the waves aided by a friend, was featured in today's paper as a graphic illustration of how France is unable to stop the tide of dinghies across the Channel. On Tuesday, despite the firing of tear gas grenades by 50 armed French police equipped with riot shields, your reporter watched as even this disabled migrant was able to slip through the thin blue line of gendarmes on Gravelines beach near Calais. And he reached the water – whereupon he was protected by increasingly controversial rules barring officers from even touching migrants or their dinghies. On that occasion he was not able to join maybe 60-plus fellow travellers on the giant 'taxi boat' dinghy which arrived to pick them up. Scores of others were hauled aboard as police and officials watched, from land and four sea craft, without doing anything. But the dinghy was too full for the disabled migrant to be pulled on, and he limped, sodden, back to shore. The Mail predicted he would surely try again the next day. He did just that, at the exact same spot. Scores of migrants were hauled aboard as police and officials watched, from land and four sea craft, without doing anything With no police even in sight this time, he was first in the queue to be dragged on to yet another 'taxi' dinghy. As the sun rose at 5.30am, his crutch was held aloft like Excalibur as his fellow migrants helped him aboard. Within minutes, as we again watched, the rubber boat was full to bursting, around 20 migrants sitting on each side and more in the middle. It then set off across the Channel towards England, passing over the horizon within a quarter of an hour. Whether it arrived is unclear. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, who scrapped the Conservative plan to send small boat arrivals to Rwanda, continues to declare he will be able to 'smash the gangs' and stop the boats with the aid of French police, who we are sending millions to. Yet the migrants continue to exploit the loophole which means once they are in the sea, even up to the ankles, police will touch neither them nor their dinghies, through fear of harming them, meaning they are free to sail to England. And police have told the Mail there are simply too many migrants, and too much shoreline near England, for them ever to be stopped - particularly as they are confident they will be welcomed here. There may have been a reason no police were at dinghy hotspot Gravelines meanwhile. Sixteen police fans and a giant digger later turned up the main migrant camp a few miles inland between a major road and railway line at Grande-Synthe. Gazebos used by migrants as shops selling food, cigarettes and mobile phones, plus holding information on illicit channel crossings, were smashed to bits, and migrants told to keep away. Yet again, the effect was limited. Even with officers and the digger still there, a huge queue of 200 migrants and more soon gathered literally a stone's throw away to receive free food distributed by a charity. They showed no sign of wanting to go anywhere. Except England. A Kurdish Iraqi living in the area, who asked not to be named, said: 'Of course migrants are upset the police have destroyed their shops - and are searching the site for weapons used in feuds between them. 'But they'll just set up again nearby. And be even more determined to get in a dinghy across the Channel.' Latest figures show £3.1 billion was spent on housing asylum seekers in hotels in 2023-24, out of a total asylum support bill of £4.7 billion. More than 30,000 asylum seekers are housed in about 200 hotels across Britain, many of whom arrived illegally in dinghies, and ministers are looking at moving them into derelict tower blocks and student digs. But despite Ms Reeves' pledge to end the use of hotels, the Tories pointed out that the small print of her Spending Review documents revealed that £2.5 billion will still be spent each year on asylum support by the end of the decade.
The Sun
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Sun
Small boat migrant crosses Channel every 5 MINUTES in near-record week of arrivals
A WHOPPING 2,222 small boat migrants have arrived in the past week - equivalent to one every five minutes. The number of Channel crossings since Labour came to power today surpassed 40,000 after the highest seven-day period since 2021. 2 2 Ministers were challenged to declare the influx a public safety crisis after a proportion of grooming gang predators were found to be asylum seekers. On Tuesday 489 migrants made the perilous journey from French beaches in eight dinghies to continue a busy summer period of arrivals. Hapless Calais cops were again seen standing by as the migrants waded into the water to be picked up by smuggling gangs. Emmanuel Macron has pledged to change the law to let his officers intercept them in the shallows - but Nigel Farage yesterday warned the crisis would continue until Britain acted to reduce its pull factors. It came as Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood warned the European Convention of Human Rights must be overhauled to restore damaged public trust in the rule of law. Addressing the Council of Europe, she said there is a 'growing perception' that human rights rules are 'no longer a shield for the vulnerable, but a tool for criminals to avoid responsibility'. The Justice Secretary declared that the ECHR 'too often protects those who break the rules, rather than those who follow them'. In May nine countries led by Italy and Denmark wrote a public letter blasting the convention for too often 'protecting the wrong people'. The Council of Europe, which oversees the ECHR, has said it recognises a need to change. But in the meantime, ministers have vowed to get a grip over how domestic courts adopt bogus rulings from Strasbourg. Ms Mahmood said: 'If a foreign national commits a serious crime, they should expect to be removed from the country. 'In the UK, we are restoring the balance we pledged at the birth of our Convention: liberty with responsibility, individual rights with the public interest. There must be consequences for breaking the rules.' In January an Albanian criminal was allowed to stay in the UK because his son wouldn't eat international varieties of chicken nuggets. And just last month a Pakistani paedo avoided deportation after claiming he risks being attacked by 'religious fanatics' in his homeland. Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp accused the government of siding with 'foreign criminals and not the British public'. He slammed the ECHR for protecting sexual predators over the country's kids, blasting: 'Who is looking out for their rights? Not the Government.' The Shadow Home Secretary argued the UK should rip up the Human Rights Act when it comes to immigration matters.
Telegraph
2 days ago
- General
- Telegraph
French police fail to stop Channel migrant on crutches
French police failed to prevent a man using a crutch from getting into a migrant boat setting out across the Channel. The man, who leant heavily on the crutch, was one of several dozen people who boarded a dinghy off a stretch of beach near Calais It comes after Sir Keir Starmer admitted that the small-boats crisis is getting worse, and ahead of an expected surge in crossings due to warmer weather. Just after first light on Wednesday morning, the man with the crutch was among a group of migrants, marshalled by a trafficker wearing a mask, who made their way across the long sandy beach at Gravelines and into the shallow waters. French police were nowhere to be seen. His companions had helped him wade out to the boat and cries of encouragement could be heard as he climbed aboard the tiny, overladen dinghy. Unlike many of his fellow passengers, he was not wearing a lifejacket. The number of people arriving on small boats across the Channel so far this year is more than 22 per cent higher than it was by this time in 2024. From the beginning of Jan until June 14, 16,317 migrants crossed to the UK. Last year 13,489 had made the journey by the end of June. On Monday, another 228 people crossed in four boats, according to the latest Home Office figures. A further 134 people had managed to reach the UK on Saturday, in two small boats. On Friday, more than 900 migrants crossed in 14 boats – the single largest number for several weeks. Last Thursday, 52 reached the UK coast in one boat, and the day before 400 had made it across in six small boats. The crossing remains perilous. Since the beginning of the year at least 15 people have died at sea while attempting to cross the Channel, according to the French. In 2024, more than 78 migrants died while attempting to reach the UK. On Saturday, the French coastguard said they had rescued almost 100 people who had attempted the crossing on that day and the previous 24 hours. There has been growing frustration at France's apparent foot-dragging, with it stopping fewer than 40 per cent of boats so far this year. It marks the lowest proportion on record despite a three-year Anglo-French deal costing £480 million to combat the crossings. But France's interior ministry has pledged to come up with a new strategy by the time of Franco-British summit – which begins on July 8 – involving police and gendarmes intercepting migrant boats at sea up to 300 metres from the coast for the first time. Matthew Pennycook, a Labour minister, said the reform was part of a series of changes which he said would allow the UK to cut the number of economic migrants and asylum seekers reaching its shores. French police have already begun to adopt more robust tactics, including dousing beaches with tear gas, to try to stop so many small boats leaving northern France. They are also using drones to spot boats along a 75-mile stretch of coastline, which is policed by hundreds of officers. At Gravelines on Wednesday, police officers appeared to be focusing their efforts further inland in a bid to deter migrants from even reaching the beach. The French authorities claim two-thirds of vessels are already being prevented from leaving. The promised crackdown comes as conditions in the migrant camps in northern France appeared to be deteriorating, with rising tensions among those desperate to leave. Two migrants were shot dead in two separate incidents at camps near the town of Dunkirk on Saturday and Sunday, with around five others wounded. All those involved were reported to be of Sudanese origin. French police said that one migrant was shot and killed at a camp at Loon Plage, outside Dunkirk, on Sunday. The shooting came a day after gunfire killed another man in the same area the previous day and left five others wounded. Armed officers arrested two suspected members of an organised gang on Saturday in connection with one of the shootings. A 29-year-old man who claimed to be from Iraq was held, along with a 16-year-old from Afghanistan, the public prosecutor's office said. Salomé Bahri, a volunteer with Utopia 56, a group working with migrants based near Grande-Synthe, site of a large migrant camp outside Dunkirk, told the InfoMigrants news website that there had been 'a lot of tensions in the area . . . in the last two or three weeks'. She said the situation had worsened because of the authorities' attempt to clear out the camps. One, near Loon Plage, is currently home to between 1,500 to 2,000 people, an increase from around 1,000 last winter. 'The tensions are also caused by the trafficking gangs,' said another volunteer. 'You can't say that all the migrants there are causing these tensions. But everything that is happening there, all this violence is also a consequence of the migration policies being carried out at the border.'
