“Horrifying” levels of state violence at UK-France border detailed in new report

Humans for Rights Network has published a new report “You can’t stay but you can’t go” – State violence at the UK-France border, evidencing the levels of violence perpetrated on people who are attempting to cross the border. The report notes that 2024 was the deadliest year ever at the UK-France border and that violence has also been increasing. Violence, including the use of tear gas, is used indiscriminately, meaning that children are also subject to this.

The report makes the case for the UK’s responsibility for these policies of violence through bilateral agreements and the funding of securitisation measures taken by France, to the tune of hundreds of millions of Euros.

Section 4 of the report looks at the living conditions for people in Calais and Dunkirk, where there is a lack of adequate shelter and police sabotage the work NGOs do to support people. There are also regular eviction cycles where people’s belongings are confiscated, including medication, prescriptions and asylum claim documents. Random police violence, including physical attacks, is also common, with people understandably reluctant to report this.

Section 5 of the report looks at violence during attempts to travel from France to the UK, including during dangerous lorry crossings and small boat crossings. Governments on both sides of the Channel have prioritised surveillance rather than search and rescue, which the report argues means that these states bear direct responsibility for the deaths.

Section 6 looks at what happens to people in France after a failed crossing, which includes a lack of access to medical care in some cases. There is also an incredibly useful appendix setting out a timeline of the extent of UK-France co-operation in recent years, which includes bilateral agreements and funding.

URGENT ACTION TO SAVE LIVES

Emergency Response

• The UK and French governments, with support of the Calais group, must review the search and rescue capacity currently available from both sides of the Channel. Both governments must commit to funding and organising increased search and rescue capacity as required. This must be genuine search and rescue and must not be aimed at or used for the surveillance and criminalisation of people on the move.
• The French and UK governments must plan, fund and provide adapted support to survivors of shipwrecks/failed crossings, including shelter, food, drink, and first response; adapted psychological support; ending violent treatment of survivors including arrest and interrogation.
• The UK and French governments must commit to searching for missing people, creating more capacity through increased funding and planning where needed.

Reception in France

• The UK and French governments must collaborate to create and fund a dignified and safe reception for people on the move in northern France, including shelter, access to food, water and hygiene services, and access to adapted safeguarding support
• The French authorities must ensure the provision of adequate interpretation services across all emergency services and medical providers in northern France. They must also ensure people can access medical services without fear of being detained by police.
• The UK and French governments must divert spending on militarisation to provide humanitarian assistance, with a group convened including experts by experience and NGOs to determine adequate use of this funding.

Limiting harm

• The UK and French governments must commit to not implementing violent police actions which will endanger life, such as pullbacks or interventions in the water.

TRANSPARENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY

Funding and policy

• The UK parliament’s Home Affairs Select Committee or Public Accounts Committee must conduct an inquiry into UK spending at the border, whether through the French government or private companies, to establish how taxpayer’s money has been used.
• The UK and French governments must publish all contracts, financial data and monitoring processes related to spending at the border, whether through the French government or private companies. This must include detailed accounts of how money is spent and how the impact of spending is monitored by the UK government.
• The UK and French governments must release all policy, practice and operation documents that relate to securitisation of the border.
• The UK and French governments must create a monitoring framework based in international human rights law to ensure any future policy and spending on border security does not contravene human rights.

Deaths and disappearances

• The UK and French governments must jointly publish regular data about those who have died and gone missing in the Channel and at the border, including age, sex and nationality.
• The UK and French governments must pause all security spending at the UK-France border until a statutory inquiry into the increase in violence and deaths since the 2018 Sandhurst Treaty is carried out. This investigation should seek to establish how UK funding contributed to an increase in border-violence, including the rise in power of smugglers in response to heightened security and lack of safe routes.

Responding to violence

• The UK and French governments must create an independent cross-border reporting mechanism which is not linked to law enforcement on either side of the Channel, to allow people to report instances of violence with confidence of being heard and action being taken.
• The UK and French governments must offer dignified administrative and practical support to the families and friends of those who have died or gone missing at the border.

BROADER SYSTEM CHANGE

Ending state violence

• The UK and French governments must work together to end the ‘zero point of fixation’ policy (enacted by widespread violent evictions), including ending UK funding for these operations.
• The French and UK governments must end racist and discriminatory police operations in France, including but not limited to police interventions in transport networks and the random arrest and detention of individuals. The UK must end funding for these police operations.
• The UK and French governments must end violent police interceptions of crossing attempts, whether by small boat or lorry. Both governments must end their funding of these operations.

Access to asylum

• The UK and French governments must end the ‘one in, one out’ scheme immediately and permanently and immediately return all those removed to France.
• The UK government must repeal the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 and end the practice of criminalising people for arriving at the border. This practice contravenes the UK’s obligations under international law, and does not have the purported ‘deterrence’ effect. It should also remove clauses 13-18 of the Border Security Asylum and Immigration Bill to prevent any further criminalisation of people seeking safety.
• The UK government must create safe and accessible routes to the UK for anyone seeking safety. This must include restoring and improving access to family reunion and the creation of new safe routes. The process of developing safe routes must be advised by a group including experts by experience and NGOs.