British Member of Parliament Chris Philp released video footage on July 29, 2026, showing French police standing by as roughly 100 migrants launched a dinghy toward the United Kingdom from the French coast.
The incident occurred as approximately 500 migrants were estimated to have attempted the English Channel crossing on the same day.
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Philp confronted French gendarmes on the beach after observing about a hundred migrants walk across the shore and board a vessel in shallow water without intervention from local authorities.
A French officer on the scene told Philp directly about their operational directives regarding the crossing attempts.
"Our order is to let them go. We just have to say to them 'don't do that it's dangerous'," said the unnamed French gendarme.
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Philp criticized the Home Office and Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood over the government's funding agreement with French law enforcement, which totals over half a billion pounds intended to halt illegal embarkations.
"Shabana Mahmood should not be paying half a billion pounds of our money to the French when they’re failing to stop these embarkations.
I only arrived here yesterday, and I managed to find this group of illegal immigrants in just a matter of a few hours.
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So why haven’t the French police been able to do that? Andy Burnham’s claim that this problem has been solved is clearly ridiculous," said Chris Philp.
