by Charles Hymas, Telegraph
Chris Philp confronts officers on the beach in France as people clamber into a dinghy
French police have admitted that they have orders not to stop migrants from getting into boats and setting off for Britain.
Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, confronted the officers as his support team filmed dozens of migrants clambering onto a dinghy, up to their waists in water.
It came on a day when up to 700 migrants crossed the Channel in small boats which, if confirmed, would be one of the biggest numbers of arrivals this year. The highest to date this year was 710 crossing in mid-June.
Standing on Hardelot beach, south of Boulogne, Mr Philp asked an officer why he had allowed the migrants into the water and not stopped them.
He replied: “Our order is to let them go. We just have to say to them, ‘Don’t do that. It’s dangerous’.”
Mr Philp then asked: “So your orders are not to intervene,” to which the police officers replied: “We have to protect them.”
France has rarely intervened in shallow water on the beaches because of what it claims is risk to the migrants’ lives. On a handful of occasions, some officers have judged it safe to slash the dinghies with knives.
The French have also set up a new elite police unit, which has intercepted people-smugglers on “taxi boats” before they pick up migrants from the beaches.