How a beach 180 miles from Calais changed the face of UK’s small boats crisis

The 2am mayday call the French coastguard received last Sunday was highly unusual. An inflatable dinghy, carrying some 140 migrants, was in distress – but its location was some 180 miles west of Calais, where small boat departures normally occur. What unfolded over that 17-hour journey was a sea change in the business of migrant crossings, as the vessel crossed the Channel from the Normandy coast and its occupants eventually brought ashore at a small Portsmouth harbour. It was, by some distance, the westernmost and – according to rescuers and French maritime authorities – among the most dangerous crossing seen in the near decade of small boat activity between France and Britain. Shorts It has sparked fears on both sides of the Channel that it could presage copycat crossings across this new, more dangerous route – potentially bringing migrants across England’s South Coast, stretching maritime rescuers beyond their limits and fuelling anti-migrant vigilante protests. “This is new and it is very dangerous,” one French official told The i Paper this week. NORMANDY How a remote western beach shifted the small boats crisis far west Until this week, the trade in human desperation that is migrant crossings had followed a pattern gravitating around the narrowest point of the English Channel between Calais and Dover, about 24 miles long. As French security forces patrol beaches a few dozen miles on either side of Calais and Dunkirk, would-be asylum seekers are led by smuggling gangs to departure points in sand dunes to climb aboard flimsy – and increasingly huge – vessels for the perilous five-to-seven-hour crossing to England. But that picture is shifting, as graphically highlighted by the events last weekend on the Cotentin Peninsula, the hook of the French mainland separating the Channel Islands from the Baie de Seine where the D-Day landings took place. Migrants have to cross Calais sand dunes to reach Channel departure points (Photo: Dan Kitwood/Getty) Late last Saturday, the 140 migrants were taken to a deserted stretch of dunes south of the village of Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue – most likely at a spot close to Juno Beach, where Allied soldiers stormed ashore some 82 years ago – to begin their journey. The apparent success of the Franco-British policing operation around Calais, which meant small-boat arrivals between January and August fell by 44 per cent compared to the same period last year, has forced smugglers to launch their dinghies at ever-increasing distances to avoid drone surveillance and police interception. Departures from the Baie de Seine have been seen before. But until now, these so-called taxi boats had progressed up the French coast towards Calais, picking up migrants at pre-arranged collection points before making the shorter crossing towards Dover. What was different with last weekend’s boat was its pilots’ decision to head straight into the Channel for a direct, 70-mile crossing towards Portsmouth – a journey that takes at least triple the amount of time required for the more established routes near Calais, French authorities say. “The crossing attempt from the Cotentin Peninsula is the first and only that we have seen in this area since the beginning of the migrant crisis”, France’s Maritime Prefecture for the English Channel told The i Paper. An official added: “The crossing… is across the open sea. The migrants are a lot less protected.” Migrants often pay vast sums of money to make the perilous journey (Photo: Dylan Martinez/Reuters) ‘Proof of concept’ French and UK investigators are working to understand the steps taken by smugglers to bring their passengers and inflatable to this western departure point. The i Paper understands that the migrants, who are likely to have paid at least €2,000 (£1,700) per person for the crossing, were brought by van or car from established gathering points around Dunkirk and Calais, or as far as Paris. Those making the Channel crossing are often kept at marshalling points such as agricultural buildings or woodland near beaches before making a dash to the departure zone under cover of darkness. Despite the promised deployment of a “surge” team of additional French police officers to monitor smuggling west of Calais, it is understood the area used for this weekend’s departure was not under routine surveillance. The result is concern that the eventual arrival of the migrants in Portsmouth will embolden smuggling gangs to make copycat crossings. One French law enforcement source said: “The problem is the gangs now have ‘proof of concept’ for this new route. The geographical focus of the system is shifting because they are getting fewer boats through at Calais. “We can without doubt expect more attempts from Normandy in the weeks and months to come.” THE CHANNEL Lethal currents and dangerous ‘mega-dinghies’ By the time France’s Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre (Cross) near Cherbourg received that mayday call early Sunday, the boat had suffered an engine failure and was drifting off two uninhabited islands in the Baie de Seine with 20 women and eight children on board. Only a handful were wearing life jackets. While being escorted by five French naval and lifeboat vessels and two helicopters that were scrambled to the scene, those on board the migrant boat managed to re-start a second motor and continue their journey. But maritime officials pointed out the route passes close to a notorious current, known as the Raz Blanchard, which can reach speeds of up to 12 knots with four-metre waves. “These are some of the strongest currents in Europe and they can be exceptionally dangerous. The migrant dinghies are completely unsuitable for this type of transit,” one source said. Under the strict rules of engagement used by the French authorities, police and rescuers cannot intervene once migrant boats are already in the water for fear of provoking panic and destabilising the vessels. Smugglers have loaded flimsy dinghies with more and more people in recent months (Photo: Abdul Saboor/Reuters) Smuggling gangs, seeing their numbers of crossings reduced by security operations, have steadily increased the size of the vessels they deploy to maintain profit margins. The average number of passengers per crossing increased from 26 in 2021 to 63 last year (this year, there have been 11 vessels with more than 100). One 15-metre dinghy carrying 230 people arrived last month – the largest single crossing on record. Volunteers with the Société Nationale de Sauvetage en Mer (SNSM), the French equivalent of the RNLI, expressed fears that the increased use of these huge but flimsy boats will place rescuers at the limits of their ability to help in the event of a disaster. French lifeboats carry floating platforms for people to cling on as they await rescue. But the unstable structure of these “mega-dinghies” means they can effectively fold in the middle if they suddenly rupture, trapping passengers inside as the vessel sinks. One volunteer said: “The middle of the dinghy is often where women and children are situated – it’s the most lethal part of these vessels. Our concern is that even if you have a number of [rescue] boats accompanying a very large dinghy, it is extremely complicated to recover alive everyone on board a vessel of that size if it fails.” Utopia 56, a charity that works with migrants in northern France, said: “If crossing routes are shifting, it should be remembered that the primary change is the level of danger faced by those making these crossings.” ENGLAND Rescuers under pressure As two RNLI vessels escorted the dinghy into the Hampshire coast Sunday evening, the sense of froideur was not limited to the masked vigilantes gathered to block access to Eastney harbour on the edge of Portsmouth. While seeking a place to dock, both rescue boats were denied access to Portsmouth Harbour and the Port of Southampton, and told over VHF radio that if they failed to comply they would be at risk of criminal prosecution. After consulting with HM Coastguard, the decision was eventually taken by the RNLI vessels to dock at Eastney, where the charity’s inshore Portsmouth lifeboat is based. Associated British Ports, Southampton’s owner, said it barred the RNLI boats because it lacked “suitable reception facilities”. The King’s Harbour Master for Portsmouth said it could not comment on operational matters. The incident, which prompted the RNLI to say it was “disappointed” with the ports’ communications, underlined the apparent fragility of the structures in place should more migrant boats start arriving at southern locations, which until now had never coped with such arrivals. Portsmouth City Council criticised the use of Eastney harbour, saying the location was unsuitable and that it had not been consulted by the Home Office before the disembarkations. The RNLI found itself having to defend its role in coming to the aid of migrant boats at the request of HM Coastguard, after some of its volunteers were targeted with online abuse. Chief executive Peter Sparkes called the abuse “wholly unacceptable in a civilised society”, adding: “Illegal immigration is a political issue; the RNLI exists to save lives at sea.” The question remains of the scale of rescue resources available, should migrant landings become spread beyond Dover, where current provision involving Border Force cutters is concentrated. The RNLI has vessels at 20 locations between Eastbourne and Plymouth. But only seven of those stations operate the larger Severn and Tamar class lifeboats, which can take on about 120 survivors at a time. Last year, just 1.2 per cent of all its emergency responses involved migrant boats on the Channel. The Home Office said it was ready to “adapt” its response to the smuggling gangs should they attempt further direct crossings from Normandy. Policing minister Sarah Jones said: “The use of larger boats with over a hundred people crammed on board is a clear cause for concern, and we remain alert to the potential for crossings on less frequently targeted stretches of water off our coastline.”