French police told to stop firing on Channel migrants

Summary: French police have been warned to stop using rubber bullets and tear gas to block migrants boarding small boats for Britain, after a human rights report said the tactics have caused serious injuries and deaths. The warning comes despite France receiving hundreds of millions of pounds from the UK to stop Channel crossings. The dispute exposes growing tension between enforcement, accountability, and political pressure on both sides of the Channel.

French police tactics criticised

French police have been urged to stop using rubber bullets, tear gas and stun grenades against migrants attempting to cross the English Channel in small boats.

The warning comes from Claire Hédon, France’s official “defender of rights”, who said the use of force has endangered lives and contributed to serious injuries and deaths.

Her findings were set out in an 18-page report on weapons use by police, dated December 2025 and leaked to the French newspaper Le Monde.

Weapons used to stop boat departures

The report criticises police for firing rubber bullets and deploying tear gas to prevent migrants boarding inflatable boats on northern French beaches.

Ms Hédon said preventing dangerous crossings was understandable, but warned that enforcement “cannot be done at any cost”.

“The use of intermediate-force weapons endangers people.”

She called for these weapons to be excluded when the sole aim is to stop people getting into boats.

Deaths, injuries and complaints

According to migrant groups, 78 people died attempting Channel crossings in 2024 alone.

Since 2022, around 40 formal complaints have been made about police violence linked to migration operations, most submitted by the charity Utopia 56.

One incident cited in the report describes riot police firing tear gas at a boat already at sea near Gravelines in February 2023.

Another involved children being exposed to similar tactics on a Calais beach later that year.

Lack of transparency highlighted

The report also criticises poor accountability, claiming police body cameras were often switched off during incidents involving force.

Footage recorded at night was frequently unusable, and officers rarely filed detailed reports after violent interventions.

In one 2024 operation at Oye-Plage, police reportedly fired 14 tear-gas grenades, a stun grenade and eight rubber bullets, with no written report produced afterwards.

Political pressure and UK funding

The findings are likely to frustrate British politicians, as France has received roughly £500 million from the UK to stop Channel crossings.

Despite heavy enforcement and funding, more than 42,000 people crossed the Channel in small boats in 2025.

The row underlines a wider failure of the current approach, where large sums are spent on enforcement while crossings continue and accountability remains contested.

For a broader explanation of why Channel enforcement repeatedly fails, see our explainer on Britain’s unresolved sovereignty and border control problem.

For context on how international legal frameworks shape policing and migration policy, read why international agreements increasingly limit national enforcement.

And for background on how migration policy became embedded across Europe, see how cross-border politics override national decision-making.