French officers assigned to patrol beaches used by migrants attempting to cross the English Channel lack proper training and appropriate equipment, a senior police union leader said, raising questions about how hundreds of millions of pounds of British funding has been spent.
Marc Alegre, head of the Unité police union representing officers in Calais and Dunkirk, told the Telegraph that front-line officers are learning on the job and are often transferred from urban units without the skills required for coastal patrols. Alegre said the forces remain ‘‘too compartmentalised’’ and that resources bought with UK money have sometimes been the wrong type for the work being carried out.
Alegre said a common example is vehicles supplied to beach patrols: four-wheel-drive passenger vehicles supplied through funding programmes can go on sand, but lack a loadbed to carry recovered dinghies and engines, which officers said would fit in the back of pickup trucks. He said patrol cars are frequently damaged after being targeted with stones and that officers are facing violence from organised traffickers who instruct migrants to obstruct police operations.
"No one has been trained in France. It's all on-the-job experience," Alegre said. "When you come from Lyon or Paris and you come to work on the beach, it's not the same job. When you work in a housing project, it's not the same way of working as on the beach." He added that officers were ‘‘practically out of ammunition’’ and that colleagues have been regularly injured and required hospital treatment.
The comments come against the backdrop of repeated scrutiny of how UK funding to France has been spent to curb Channel crossings. A July report by the House of Commons Library set out that the UK has provided at least £658 million to France since 2018 for border security and migration-related measures, and that an additional £114 million was handed over in the previous four years for other security measures such as work at Calais port and addressing migrant camps — a total of more than £770 million over 12 years.
Alegre and other critics point to earlier revelations that some UK-funded equipment was purchased for use on the French–Italian border rather than the Channel coast. Public reporting has also listed items bought with UK funds including helicopters, cars, motorbikes, e-scooters, quad bikes, surveillance kit such as binoculars and drones, and other items used by units across northern France. In 2023 it was reported that some purchases included everyday items such as charging devices, microwaves and car vacuums, and support for a horse brigade in the Somme Bay.
Footage published in recent months has shown confrontations on the Channel coast, including images of migrants wading out to dinghies and video that purportedly shows officers slashing inflatable boats and using pepper spray as crossings were attempted. French authorities have defended policing operations as part of wider efforts to disrupt people-smuggling networks, while British and French governments have repeatedly said they are cooperating to reduce dangerous Channel crossings.
Alegre urged the French government to create specialised units dedicated to coastal work, covering the border from the Belgian frontier to Boulogne and incorporating both the police and the gendarmerie working year-round. He said coordinated, specialised teams would be better equipped to work in the dunes and on beaches than officers seconded from urban forces.
French interior ministry officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Alegre's remarks. British officials have previously said they monitor how funds provided to partners are used and have sought assurances that spending targets the Channel route and trafficking networks, but the use of some equipment away from the Channel has prompted criticism in Parliament and media coverage.
The union leader's account highlights operational strains on authorities policing one of Europe's busiest and most politically sensitive migration routes, and it adds to broader questions about the effectiveness and oversight of international funding aimed at preventing small-boat crossings.