Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

France’s border patrol is playing a losing game

Migrants sit on a dinghy as they sail into the English Channel on 31 May 31, France (Credit: Getty images)

In a 24-hour period at the weekend, 184 migrants were rescued in the English Channel by the French coastguard. The most southerly group that got into trouble was picked up off Fort-Mahon in the Somme Department, and the most northerly were off Dunkirk, more than 80 miles up the coast. The coastguard was also called to incidents in Wimereux and Grand-Fort-Philippe.

In other words, it is not just England that is being invaded. So is France, its rugged coastline saturated by thousands of predominantly young men all intent on crossing the Channel. I’ve written before of their violent desperation: the mob who last year attacked a group of hunters who had alerted the police to their presence in the dunes, and of others who assault police with cries of ‘Allahu akbar’.

The pro-migrant forces in Europe are far more powerful than a police force or border agency

The easy – and lazy – response is for British politicians and commentators to blame the migrant crisis on the inertia of the French police.

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