French Navy Waves Goodbye to Migrant Boats Heading to Britain
French naval personnel were filmed giving life jackets to illegal migrants and waving them toward Britain, witnessed during a GB News broadcast by Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp in the Channel.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp was aboard a fishing vessel in the English Channel when he spotted the extraordinary behaviour by French forces, according to Marcus Donaldson writing in GB News. The incident occurred just moments after Philp had been providing an update about a French warship firing 17 warning shots at his own vessel earlier in the day.
While recounting that confrontation, others aboard Philp’s boat noticed French police appearing to assist migrants departing from the French coastline bound for Britain.
“The boat is now probably 200 or 300 yards from the French shore,” Philp observed as the migrant vessel moved away from the beach. He then asked a colleague peering through binoculars whether French personnel had been seen distributing life jackets.
When this was confirmed, Philp responded with visible disbelief. He noted that the rigid-hull inflatable boat deployed from the French warship had handed over the life jackets before personnel waved the migrants on their way.
For half a billion pounds, that’s what we’re getting, the Shadow Home Secretary said, referencing the substantial sums Britain has paid France to prevent illegal crossings.
Philp had been in the Channel to personally observe enforcement efforts against the small boats crisis when the incidents unfolded. The French warship confrontation and subsequent observation of apparent French facilitation of illegal migration occurred in close succession.
This is not the first time such behaviour has been documented. In June, GB News obtained separate footage showing French naval forces tossing life jackets to migrants during a Channel crossing.
The revelations raise serious questions about whether French authorities are genuinely committed to preventing illegal crossings, despite Britain having paid France hundreds of millions of pounds specifically for that purpose. The visual evidence of French forces not only declining to turn migrants back, but actively assisting their departure toward British waters, suggests a fundamental failure of the bilateral agreement.
The incident occurred on 28 July 2026, during what was already a tense day in the Channel, with the earlier warning shots fired at Philp’s vessel adding to concerns about the increasingly fraught nature of cross-Channel relations on migration enforcement.
With information from GB News
