THE FRENCH police union boss whose cops are failing to stop boats crossing the Channel was branded a “hypocrite” after describing migrants in France as “scum”.
The Alliance national police union is leading the charge against calls for French officers to do more to intervene and halt dinghies heading for Dover.
AlamyPolice union boss Fabien Vanhemelryck was branded a ‘hypocrite’ after describing migrants in France as ‘scum’, pictured at a 2022 rally in Paris[/caption]
PAA packed dinghy prepares to leave Gravelines on the French coast, near Calais[/caption]
Gary StoneMigrants arrive in Kent after crossing the Channel in small boats[/caption]
And the radical body is even calling for the number of would-be migrants in immigration custody to be cut, allowing them to keep boarding boats until they become the UK’s problem.
Alliance general secretary Fabien Vanhemelryck last year called “young people of foreign origin” in France “a pain”.
But he has been at the forefront of a campaign against a proposed law change that would make French cops enter the water to stop the boats from launching.
Last weekend, Vanhemelryck’s colleagues were pictured standing by as more than 1,000 migrants crossed the Channel.
Britain is already coughing up £476million for a deal with Emmanuel Macron’s French government, under which border commanders in Calais are supposed to prevent crossings.
‘Grow a backbone’
A record 14,812 have already crossed this year — up 42 per cent in a year — with France now demanding even more cash to make its police force operate in the water.
Ministers in Paris have long planned to change the law but now want more British taxpayers’ cash to fund a new police unit with special powers to take on migrants.
Vanhemelryck, 51, has resisted the change, raising the prospect that the powerful union baron is letting the crisis go on so more foreigners leave France.
And in an interview in July last year, Vanhemelryck said of migrants: “Even my Muslim colleagues are fed up with the scum, the pests, the young people of foreign origin in working-class neighbourhoods who are a pain and who are never punished.”
Robert Jenrick, the Tory shadow justice secretary, said: “No wonder the French union bosses are refusing to get their feet wet and stop migrant boats coming to Britain — they just want to see the back of them.
“They don’t care how many go to the UK. The French could end this disaster overnight if they wanted to.
“It’s blindly obvious Starmer shouldn’t gamble on them to stop the boats. He needs to grow a backbone and sort it out himself.”
Everyone in Europe — including Vanhemelryk — needs to work to stop movement of illegal immigrants everywhere. Vanhemelryk must get with the programme or Europe will be overrun
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp raged: “French Union boss Fabien Vanhemelryk is guilty of flagrant hypocrisy.
“He slams immigrants in France but then orders his union to refuse to do anything about illegal immigration over the Channel.
“Everyone in Europe — including Vanhemelryk — needs to work to stop movement of illegal immigrants everywhere. Vanhemelryk must get with the programme or Europe will be overrun.”
Alliance sources say the union boss will fight to the end to stop his own officers from arresting migrants.
The senior source said: “People don’t realise how dangerous it is to try and carry out arrests at sea while trying to force a boat to change course.
PAFrench cops stand and watch as migrants prepare to flee for UK[/caption]
“If there are 80 people on an overcrowded boat, including women and children, then it is extremely dangerous to try and stop them.
“People can fall in the water, while others resist arrest — the potential for disaster, including further deaths, is immense. Turning us into sea police is not the way forward.”
There have been ten migrant deaths in the Channel this year, prompting Alliance members to refuse to enter the water.
The union even wants to hold fewer would-be boat crossers in French immigration detention.
They say that suspects who want to get to Britain are becoming more violent and officers are unable to cope.
Bosses have called for one key retention centre in Coquelles, at the entrance to the Channel Tunnel, to have its capacity cut from 104 male prisoners to 74.
A union source said: “We are having to look after hardened criminals while they are processed, and do not have the staff numbers to cope.”
It’s time we held other countries accountable for the continuing invasion of our shores.
Reform UK chief whip Lee Anderson
Those held in Coquelles could only be set free on bail, although almost all of them would immediately abscond and leave the country on a dinghy for the UK.
Last October, a 19-year-old migrant from Mali ferociously attacked other Coquelles centre inmates and hit police officers who intervened.
Local Alliance representative Sliman Hamzi said: “It’s unacceptable. We’ve seen scenes of colleagues being lynched. We can’t tolerate this.”
Reform UK chief whip Lee Anderson accused the union leader of “actively enabling Channel crossings.”
He added: “If France doesn’t want these migrants, why should British taxpayers foot the bill for their transport, housing, and clothing?
“It’s time we held other countries accountable for the continuing invasion of our shores.
“They’re actively enabling Channel crossings because they’d rather shift the problem onto us.”
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper last week slammed French officials for not intercepting boats at sea “as swiftly as possible”.
A record 1,195 people reached the UK in 19 small boats last Saturday and officials are preparing for a summer surge as the weather improves.
MIGRANTS’ BREAK FAIL
Exclusive by Thomas Godfrey
TWO immigrants — one of them a child — were hiding in the luggage compartment of a coach full of schoolkids when it pulled into this motorway services.
Underneath a coach returning from a school trip to France to get across the English Channel – after a surge in stowaway journeys.
The pair of asylum seekers climbed into the luggage compartment as the bus brought back more than 50 children from a day trip to Boulogne on Friday.
They snuck on before the coach boarded a ferry to Dover and got past Border Officials when it arrived in the UK.
The migrants then remained in the storage section of the coach until it stopped at Birchanger Green service station on the M11, near Stansted Airport.
Year 7 pupils and teachers, who had been on the French trip to learn how to order lunch in the native language, are said to have heard loud bangs coming from underneath the coach.
It prompted the driver, from a local coach firm, to pull over and stop at the services.
Two illegal immigrants, including a child, then emerged from their hiding spot in the vehicle.
Both remained at the service station until they were detained by police shortly before 10pm.
The students, from a small secondary school in Cambridgeshire, were taken inside the halt and told the coach had suffered an engine failure.
It took an hour for the kids to be allowed back on the coach so the journey home could resume.
A parent of one of the children on board said: “The pupils were really tired because they had been up at 3am, and they were meant to get home at 10pm.
“Because of the hold-up to arrest the migrants, they didn’t get back until well after 11pm.
“It’s a total shock because they could have been any two people. Thankfully they did not try to do anything, but I feel uneasy knowing they were close to my child.”
An Essex Police spokeswoman confirmed: “We were alerted to concerns for the welfare of two people discovered under a bus on the M11 near Stansted on Friday evening.
“Officers were called out to a rest stop shortly before 10pm.
“One person has been taken into police custody, while one is being referred to social care.”
It comes after we revealed 13 migrants targeted a lorry delivering supplies to a Sainsbury’s distribution centre last week.
Figures show there were 5,874 detections of illegal immigrants at ports on the continent, including Calais, Dunkirk and the Channel Tunnel in Coquelles.
It is a rise of 22 per cent compared with 4,794 in 2023.
While migrants crossing the Channel are easily recorded, lorry stowaways may reach the UK undetected.
Many go on to obtain illegal cash-in-hand work or claim asylum and be housed in a hotel.
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