Almost 100 stranded small boat migrants have been tugged to shore by a jetski after the vessel broke down in the English Channel.
In broad daylight, at least five French police officers watched the dinghy launch – uninterrupted – from Le Touquet, around 40 miles south of Calais, at 9am this morning.
But only when the vessel’s engine fell off into the water did the police deploy a jetski to bring the boat, carrying 96 migrants, back to the northern French shoreline to the port of Boulogne-sur-Mer.
“The police had watched the migrants board and only intervened when it broke down,” one incredulous eyewitness told The Sun.
“Do they think they’re the RAC or something?”
Following the rescue, some 30 people were left in the water, while another four people were pulled from the water by helicopter and another six by lifeboat.
When the boat lost its engine, it is understood it was dangerously overcrowded – but hopeful migrants continued to wade towards the dinghy in an attempt to board the failing vessel.
The eyewitness recounted how the brazen migrants boarded the dinghy at one point, and then carried further up the beach when the engine dropped.
An official jetski then attached a tow rope and brought the migrant-packed dinghy back to France.
In normal circumstances, French authorities follow the small boats until they reach British territory – and then they ring up Border Force to pick up the illegal arrivals.
The witness recounted: “On the beach, there was a 4×4 police jeep with five to six police officers. There was another police boat with enough people to intervene earlier. It’s just sad.”
They further explained that those who did not board the boat walked back casually.
“It’s bizarre. There was no rushing. No panicking. It was like, ‘I’ve got my ticket, I’ll get my boat. I can’t get on this one so I’ll just wait for the next one’,” the source said.
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Comparing the “craziness” to the London Underground, they added: “It’s crazy. I’ve never seen anything like it.
“It’s turning the French police into the AA. The thing that shocked me was that they had so many opportunities to take people off that boat, but they didn’t.”
Jetskis are often deployed to keep watch on the vessels out in the water but also can be used to block the boats’ path.
A Maritime Gendarmerie source explained they regularly operate in shallow waters to prevent migrants from boarding the boats, using nets to render propellers useless.
The incident has called into question the integrity of the police’s commitment to uphold their end of the deal between the UK and France to tackle the small boats crisis.
Back in April, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood visited northern France to sign the accord with Emmanel Macron’s interior minister to boost police patrol in a bid to cut the number of illegal crossings.
It involved handing the French up to £662million over the course of three years to do so, with an initial lump sum of £501million of the package designed to bolster border control.
A Home Office spokesman said: “This boat was taken back to the French beaches. It did not make it to the UK. Some 47,000 attempted crossings have been stopped under this Government.”
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