A leaked radio exchange between an English ship captain and the French coastguard exposed France’s infuriating response to the small boats crisis. The captain of an English cargo ship was outraged after he spotted French navy vessels, including a warship, guiding the traffickers’ boats around his ship towards Britain, as reported by the Daily Mail.
The French navy blocked his boat, the Scot Pioneer, from entering Dunkirk harbour while they guided the migrant boats. He phoned up the French coastguard, complaining that he was witnessing the French navy “illegally trafficking immigrant boats” across the Channel to Dover.
The furious captain put it simply: “This is not search and rescue – this is illegal trafficking of humans.”
The French coastguard dismissed the complaints, claiming that the navy’s actions were part of an “arrangement” between London and Paris.
In the lengthy complaint, the English ship captain told the coastguard: “I would like to report what is an illegal operation in your waters. This morning we witnessed a French government vessel and a French navy warship escort a boat-load of illegal immigrants across the Channel to the midway point where they handed them over to another [Border Force] ship out of Dover. It has now arrived there.
“Now I have the French warship passing under my stern, passing another boat-load of immigrants across the Channel. There is also another [French] vessel to the west of us which is escorting a third boat of migrants.
“This is not search and rescue – this is illegal trafficking of humans.”
A fisherman in British waters picked up the exchange on the open-channel recordings and told the Daily Mail: “This captain witnessed first-hand the French navy escorting dinghies to waiting British Border Force vessels.”
It is the latest damning indictment of the French response to the small boats crisis.
Last week, ITV News crews witnessed British-funded French police watching on while migrants board small boats to illegally cross the English Channel.
A group of more than 50 migrants were able to cross the beach and get onto a dinghy directly in front of French officers.
This comes despite a massive £500m investment from the UK government as part of a three-year agreement with the French, intended to stop these crossings.
Britain experienced a new daily high over the weekend for those entering the country via the vessels.
Almost 750 people were detected crossing the English Channel on Saturday, April 13 and and Sunday, April 14.