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Daily Mail
7 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
'The French police? No problem!' Shocking boasts of smirking people smuggler to undercover MoS reporter shows why MPs are demanding to know what we get for the staggering £480m we give France to stem the tide of illegal migrants
Flanked by impassive henchmen deep inside a ramshackle migrant camp, the kingpin of a major people smuggling operation cracks into a cynical smirk. Laughing off any suggestion that the French police might stop his dinghies crossing to Britain, the trafficker boasts in broken English how the gendarmes not only pose 'no problem' for his criminal trade, but actually make it 'easy' for him. His damning comments – caught on video by undercover Mail on Sunday reporters last week – reveal just how little French authorities are doing to prevent the record numbers of small-boat crossings, despite receiving £480 million from the UK to tackle the issue. Though shocking, the ruthless Iraqi-Kurdish trafficker's assessment was proved right the very next morning. A boat crammed with more than 50 migrants sailed away from a beach near the tented migrants' village in Northern France as ten officers in riot gear stood idly by. The rare glimpse into the workings of a ruthless trafficker comes as part of a Mail on Sunday investigation into how these hardened criminals are running rings around police and making a mockery of Sir Keir Starmer 's vow to 'smash the gangs'. More than 15,000 people have arrived in the UK in small boats so far this year – up 42 per cent on the same period in 2024. Today, our investigation can reveal that: The Home Office fears police patrols in northern France are depleted in the busy summer months as officers are redeployed to the south to help with the tourist season; One gendarme said there were simply 'not enough' officers to deal with the number of migrants, despite the UK's huge handout to bolster patrols; Smugglers are now launching dinghies further up the coast then having migrants wade into the sea to board them, where police will not intervene; A migrant detention centre that was supposed to be built in Dunkirk with British taxpayers' money appears to be just an empty industrial site after construction was delayed. His damning comments – caught on video by undercover Mail on Sunday reporters last week – reveal just how little French authorities are doing to prevent the record numbers of small-boat crossings. Pictured: Migrants set off aboard a small boat from the beach at Gravelines The findings sparked outcry from MPs last night, with Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp slamming the French response as 'completely useless'. It is thought that well over 1,000 migrants are currently squatting in squalid camps around Calais and Dunkirk, waiting to take advantage of the calm summer seas to set sail for Britain. The Mail on Sunday found hundreds of men, women and children gathering around the town of Grande-Synthe, a suburb to the west of Dunkirk. Here they have established a self-sufficient commune akin to the notorious Calais 'jungle' that was shut down in 2016. Makeshift cafes feed dozens of hungry mouths, and barbers ply their trade. But these ramshackle settlements have also seen escalating violence between desperate migrants and callous people smugglers. Last weekend, a 27-year-old migrant from Yemen was shot twice at the jungle camp in neighbouring Loon-Plage, while two migrants and two security guards were killed in December. Frenzied activity surrounds a shopping centre in Grande-Synthe, where migrants top up on supplies before catching the free local bus service to and from the camps. It was here that our undercover reporters, posing as a family who wanted to get their Indian cousin across the Channel, met a young Sudanese migrant named Abbas, who led us to the headquarters of the kingpin people trafficker. After trekking through dense foliage and over a railway track, the group finally reached a small clearing dotted with tents, water stations and roaming chickens. Our reporters were interrogated by a series of henchmen, with one suspecting a police sting, before the boss finally emerged after almost an hour of nervous waiting. Wearing a blue hoodie and white baseball cap, the trafficker, who gave his name as Mamand, said he had boats up to 32ft long that could take around 55 migrants across the Channel at a cost of £1,270 each (€1,500) – meaning he could be pocketing up to £70,000 per trip. To aid his faltering English, Mamand used a cigarette lighter to illustrate how his boats slipped past beach patrols before being escorted to English waters by French maritime 'security'. Pictured: Migrants set off from Gravelines This is less than half what it often costs during winter, with the discounted price most likely due to the greater amount of business smugglers can do in fair weather. Smiling, he said the French police posed 'no problem' to his criminal enterprise. 'We send one boat, maybe the police take,' he said. 'But we take another [at the same time]. We send. We do not stop.' He told our undercover reporters: 'You can sleep here' ready for their crossing which 'may be tomorrow, maybe after tomorrow, maybe today. Which day water is good, if everything is good, we send.' To aid his faltering English, Mamand then used a cigarette lighter to illustrate how his boats slipped past beach patrols before being escorted to English waters by French maritime 'security'. Asked if this meant the French were helping the migrants, he replied: 'Only in water, help. If problem [with the dinghy in the water, they] come in. If no problem, go,' he said, waving his hands dismissively. Asked if this meant the journey was made easy, the trafficker replied: 'Yes.' His words underline growing frustration with the French navy, who have been accused of 'escorting' dinghies to English waters, intervening only if the boats run into trouble, but otherwise allowing their free passage. The following morning, the smuggler's claims played out with unerring accuracy. At about 5am on Wednesday, we watched on as a boat overloaded with migrants sailed from Gravelines beach – around 12 miles west of Dunkirk – where ten gendarmes stood idly by, either powerless or unwilling to stop them. At one point, a naval vessel sped towards the dinghy as it appeared to struggle in choppy waters. But once it seemed safe, the French boat turned back and left it on its way. The dinghy was one of six boats carrying 400 migrants that arrived in England that day. French police say their hands are tied by maritime law, which means they are not allowed to intercept boats once they are in the water for safety reasons. On Wednesday morning another tactic was on display. While migrants gather at designated beachheads, smugglers launch their dinghies from a secret location elsewhere on the coast without passengers. When they get to the assembly points, the migrants wade into the sea and clamber on to the vessels – because once they are in the water the police do not intervene. Mamand said he had up to four pick-up spots around Dunkirk. One gendarme at Gravelines on Wednesday told us that he had been on patrol in town when three colleagues on the beach called for back-up after spotting a dinghy coming into view from the east. But by the time reinforcements arrived, there was nothing they could do, as the migrants were already boarding the boat. 'We try to do our best,' the officer said. 'As you can see, we are not going in the water because it's dangerous for us and it's dangerous for them. If you go in the water, you have to take care. 'If we try to stop them in the water and they drown, it is our fault under the law, currently.' French police say their hands are tied by maritime law, which means they are not allowed to intercept boats once they are in the water for safety reasons. Pictured: Police enter the water to try to stop migrants boarding small boats at Gravelines He added: 'Three police for 50 migrants – it is not enough.' By Friday, though, the gendarme had seemingly overcome their reluctance to get wet, as officers were pictured knee-deep in water, dragging migrants ashore. In an apparent change in tactics, police even used tear gas and pepper spray to disperse migrants from the beach. The operation, though, was only a partial success, as some boats still made it out to sea. Meanwhile, a local politician in Boulogne, about 25 miles to the west of Calais, summed up the French attitude. 'OK, the British have given us millions of pounds and the cameras and drones help the gendarmes spot the migrants,' he said. 'But in England the authorities meet the migrants off the boats and take them to hotels. 'The impression we get is that the English are quite happy to see them. Otherwise why would they put them up in hotels? The magnet for the migrants has always been England. It's El Dorado. So let the migrants sail over to the UK and let the British sort out its problem.' Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: 'Despite the huge amounts of money we have paid them, the French response is completely useless. 'Migrants are able to circulate freely and even if they are stopped on the beach they are released so they can try again the next day. It is totally unacceptable that the French do not intercept at sea, as the Belgians do, but instead usher illegal immigrants into UK waters. 'It is no surprise that so far 2025 has been the worst year in history for illegal immigrants crossing the Channel. Labour's claim to smash the gangs lies in tatters.' Reform MP Lee Anderson said: 'None of this should come as any surprise. I went to the camps three years ago and it was obvious then that French police were turning a blind eye. Nothing has changed. 'I don't blame them – it's our fault. Fundamentally, by the time migrants reach Calais, they're in England. It might take them 20 attempts to get here, but they're not going anywhere else because they have so much help, not just from people traffickers but from non-government organisations. 'Arresting the traffickers won't work. Even if you lock up a gang leader for 30 years, 20 more will take his place because the cash rewards are so great. 'The only solution is to stop putting migrants in hotels when they arrive. Turn them around and send them straight back to France.' A Home Office spokesman said: 'We are strengthening our vital cooperation with France to disrupt the gangs behind these crossings. 'From this month, a new unit of dedicated officers has been mobilised to increase patrols along the northern coast of France. 'At the same time, the French authorities are working to amend their operational policy to allow maritime forces to intervene in shallow waters.'
Daily Mail
12-06-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
PETER HITCHENS: The private school pupils refused NHS care show we're becoming a People's Republic by stealth - ruled by blank-eyed bureaucrats
We are becoming a People's Republic by stealth. The warnings are increasingly urgent, but is anyone listening? Last weekend The Mail on Sunday reported a deeply disturbing fact. An NHS bureaucrat had refused therapy to a young boy, saying, 'We are unable to see this child as we do not provide a service to school-age children who attend an independent school. We are only commissioned to provide a service to the mainstream schools.'
The Independent
09-06-2025
- Health
- The Independent
Does the NHS discriminate against children who attend private school?
On the face of it, the idea that the NHS would withhold treatment to a child with special needs because they attended private school is a clear outrage. I say this as someone who went to a state school, whose children are schooled in the state sector, and who supports VAT on school fees. The NHS has, however, flatly denied the Mail on Sunday 's exclusive about it happening, a story about yet another 'two-tier' system operating in Britain – see also justice and policing – which has predictably grown legs, with other such incidents now being reported. 'The story is not true,' the Department of Health & Social Care said in a statement, 'NHS services are free at the point of use to all.' Well, yes, that's the theory – but we'll get to that. 'NHS occupational therapy services are provided for all children with an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP). For those without an EHCP, some schools provide on-site NHS occupational therapy,' it continued. So what's going on here? Let's run through the story first. I'm going on what has been reported, because the mother wished to remain anonymous – understandably, at a time of polarisation, when nasty social media pile-ons for perceived wrong-think are all too common. We are told that her eight-year-old son was referred to a paediatrician at Kingston Hospital in south-west London after she noticed he was 'struggling to hold the pen well enough to write properly', along with other mobility issues. It was at the hospital that the problems arose. She was asked to fill in a form which included the question: 'Where does your child go to school?' The mother hoped for an appointment at the children's occupational therapy service in Richmond for a crucial part of his assessment. However, days later, she received a text message saying the child had been declined. She claimed the specialist unit wrote a letter to her GP saying that it was 'only commissioned to provide a service' to children in mainstream schools. Point of order: Many children with disabilities don't attend mainstream schools, and some of those who go private do so with funding from local councils because of the gaps in state provision. But let's move on. The website of the Kingston & Richmond NHS Foundation Trust states: 'Children and young people of school age can be referred via their School SENCo [Special Educational Needs Coordinator] for assessment if they attend a state-funded Richmond school and have a Richmond or Kingston address.' A spokesman declined to address claims by the Mail on Sunday that pupils from private schools had been discriminated against, but 'apologised if the wording in our correspondence caused upset": 'We are in the process of revising it to ensure greater clarity.' Which is about as clear as mud. Nevertheless, he added: 'Occupational therapy services are available to all school-age children who have an Education, Health and Care Plan either through the NHS or the local authority. For children without an EHCP, advice may be available through existing NHS services provided in state school.' Here's where it gets kafkaesque: EHCPs are extraordinarily hard to get, even if you do have mobility issues and struggle to hold a pen. It took us years of exhausting battles to secure one for our eldest, who has autism. You need a battery of assessments to get past first base, often including occupational therapists. It is obviously problematic if you can't get occupational therapy without an EHCP in the first place. By now, you've probably guessed that this appears to be a case of 'heads we win, tails you lose'. Your name's not on the list, you're not getting in for this, that, or any other service you might need. My reading of this story is that it is less about discrimination against private schools than it is yet another case of the NHS using any excuse to say no – and of the horrible bureaucratic hellscape that parents with children with special educational needs and disabilities are thrown into. It is a system that crushes those involved with it. It is like being constantly hit on the head with a sledgehammer while being stretched on a medieval rack. As a family, we've been in the same boat with occupational therapy services: denial of service followed by letters followed by the runaround. At one point, in despair, we went to see our local MP Wes Streeting who is now – ding ding ding! – the health secretary. It doesn't much matter if your child is in the private or the state education system. If they have special needs or disabilities, they and their parents will rapidly come to the conclusion that all the agencies supposed to assist them – the NHS, the local authority, sometimes even the school – are actually against them. That, for me, is the takeaway from this story. It is about a scandalous failure to provide assistance to children who need it. Reform has been repeatedly promised, but we all know that money is tight. Worse still is the fact that bad actors – by which I mean some of the worst local authorities – appear to have the government's ear. Perhaps stories like this will make ministers think twice before listening to them? As for the NHS, it was set up to treat people. It shouldn't matter if your children are schooled publicly or privately. Nor should your postcode play a role. Nor whether or not you have a disability. But the battles I have had to fight in order to overcome what feels like institutional ableism could fill a book. We all pay for the service with our taxes, and we should be able to access necessary treatments. Occupational therapy for a child with mobility issues clearly qualifies, regardless of where they go to school. It really shouldn't be this hard.
Daily Mail
08-06-2025
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Ruthless people smuggler who charges £1,200 to transport migrants to the UK boasts: 'French gendarmes do nothing. Do not worry. I am the police'
A ruthless people smuggler last night boasted to an undercover Mail on Sunday reporter that he had no concerns about the French police because they rarely did anything to stop his criminal enterprise. The Syrian trafficker was demanding £1,200 for a place on an inflatable boat leaving from northern France on Tuesday. Asked whether French gendarmes will intervene, the brazen gang boss said: 'They don't do anything. Do not worry. I am the police. I do everything. Get to my place and I will get you on a boat.' His comments come as UK and French authorities are braced for people smuggling gangs to launch large numbers of boats across the Channel during a spell of warm weather this week. Some 15,000 people have arrived in the UK in small boats so far this year – up 42 per cent on the same period in 2024 – with 1,200 arriving on a single day last Saturday, the highest this year. Speaking to the MoS reporter last week, a second people smuggler, believed to be an Iraqi, said he was organising a boat for 50 people this week. Asked whether French police would be a problem, he replied: 'No, no problem.' He added: 'I charge everyone 1,500 [euros]. I put 50 people in the boat. I will give you a safety jacket. I do a good job. Don't worry, brother, I don't take families or babies.' The trafficker boasted that he had recently sent a boat carrying 48 people to England and gave, via a WhatsApp message, our reporter an address near Dunkirk railway station where he said he could stay until the weather was good enough for a crossing attempt. A ruthless people smuggler last night boasted to an undercover Mail on Sunday reporter that he had no concerns about the French police because they rarely did anything to stop his criminal enterprise (Pictured: a group of people believed to be migrants leaving Gravelines, France, in search of the UK on May 31) French police stood back and watched as entire families packed themselves into an overcrowded small boat heading across the Channel to the UK on May 31 'There's a place for food, for sleep – everything. Maybe you will be there for two to three days, and then I'll send you [to England].' The people smuggler attempts to lure new migrants via his TikTok page, which includes a video of two packed inflatable boats leaving a beach in northern France bound for the UK last Sunday. In footage apparently filmed last month, a migrant carrying crutches is seen wading through the sea to a waiting inflatable boat crammed with migrants. Another video shows a line of French police watching a group of migrants on the quayside of a harbour, while another shows officers wearing camouflage uniforms peering through trees at a group of migrants who are sheltering by a fire in a wood. In another video, posted on the people smuggler's TikTok page last week, a man wearing a headscarf is seen striding through a French migrant camp while brandishing a huge knife.
Daily Mail
06-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
'It's just beyond embarrassing': Royal expert gives her sharp reaction to Meghan Markle's cringeworthy 'Baby Mama' twerking video
Last night, Meghan Markle posted an extraordinary video of her 'twerking' in the delivery room to mark Princess Lillibet's birth. The bizarre clip shows the Duchess of Sussex jumping on a social media craze started in 2018 with celebrities such as Ex on the Beach 's Chloe Goodman and her influencer sister Lauryn Goodman involved. The playful lyrics encourage expectant mothers to 'drop it down, drop it down, down low', adding: 'When the song come on let me see you get gone / Baby mamas, this your song / Been pregnant for way too long / Now tell the DJ turn it on.' In Meghan's video, taken four years ago just before the birth of Lillibet, her hair is in a ponytail and she is wearing a sleeveless black summer dress which she pulls up as she shimmies towards the camera, using her hands to display her baby bump more prominently and then waving them in the air. Harry then sways in front of the camera, dancing with his hands and shaking his hips, as his wife pushes her bottom out, shaking it and then wiggling her own hips. Towards the end of the excruciating 81-second video Meghan beckons Harry, sporting a hoodie and jeans, toward her - before glancing to make sure the camera is recording, giving it a knowing glance and then pulling her dress up above her knees. Now, Charlotte Griffiths - the Editor at Large of the Mail on Sunday and one of the Mail's leading royal experts - has given her sharp reaction to the Duchess' 'raunchy' dancing. Charlotte immediately points out that Meghan's decision to release the clip fours later means the viral trend has now died. In Meghan's video, taken four years ago just before the birth of Lillibet, her hair is in a ponytail and she is wearing a sleeveless black summer dress which she pulls up as she shimmies towards the camera 'The problem with this video is everyone has forgotten about that moment in time a couple of years ago. 'So without the TikTok hysteria going on at the time it's just beyond embarrassing,' she said. As a mother-of-three herself, Charlotte acknowledges she would not be in the mood to drop these sort of dance moves before going into labour. The royals expert said: 'When I was about to give birth I was lying down, I was grumpy, I was very much stationary. This is crazy!' Charlotte is however full of compliments of Harry's brief 'cameos' in the clip. 'I will say though Harry is in time with the music. Which is surprising for a public schoolboy from Eton,' she quips. Towards the end of the clip, the Duchess of Sussex then begins to bend on her knees and begins shaking her hips more vigorously sparking a strong reaction from Charlotte. 'Oh my god she's getting down and dirty. So that last bit if she just trimmed those last few seconds the hysteria of today wouldn't have happened. As a mother-of-three herself, Charlotte acknowledges she would not be in the mood to drop these sort of dance moves before going into labour 'It's so embarrassing. It's so raunchy. You know it's no wonder the King has been worried over their HRH status because this is very unbecoming of a member of the Royal Family,' she said. Reflecting on the video, Charlotte said: 'I don't know if this is some sort of self-sabotage or if she thought she was being kooky and sort of like a baby mama but I'm sorry the rest of us did not dance like that in the birthing suite. 'What is it the TikTokkers say? "Felt cute. Might delete later". 'I think Meghan should delete this one.' The video was shared on Instagram last night with the caption: 'Four years ago today, this also happened. Both of our children were a week past their due dates... so when spicy food, all that walking, and acupuncture didn't work – there was only one thing left to do.' Meghan seemingly has a cannula ready for a drip in her left hand, a hospital identity band on the other wrist, and is surrounded by medical equipment. To mark the birthday, Meghan also shared two previously unseen photos of Lilibet with Harry. One of the pictures showed the Duke of Sussex holding his daughter's hand as they walked along a sandy road barefoot in the sunshine, while he held his shoes and a cap. The other image was of Harry holding Lilibet as a baby while they looked at each other.
