A French charity that works with migrants on the Channel coast has been accused of helping to put children onto small boats bound for Britain, after video filmed near Boulogne-sur-Mer, northern France, was published by the online outlet Voxpopuli.
The footage was recorded on September 23 at Equihen beach, just south of the port. It shows a man in a purple tabard carrying a small child wearing an orange lifejacket on his shoulders, while a woman appears to lead two other children by the hand.
The volunteers were identified as members of Opal’Exil, an association that assists people who fail in their attempts to reach the United Kingdom. They were seen pulling off their tabards once they noticed the camera.
Callum Smiles, the reporter who filmed the scene, said the volunteers regularly complained about the absence of safe routes to Britain while carrying small children towards boats on which they could die. Voxpopuli said on X that the workers “removed their hi-vis jackets when they saw us filming”.
Three boats had already left the beach when the video was taken and two were about 90 metres offshore, according to the outlet. Smiles said the children were dry and had not been in the water.
Separate footage from the same beach that day showed a man leaving a small child in the sea as he scrambled aboard a dinghy. French rescuers who were chest deep in the water pulled the child out and carried it back to shore on a lifeguard board.
September 23 was the busiest day of the year on the route, with 781 people reaching Britain on 10 boats.
Opal’Exil did not reply to requests for comment. In a later statement the association said anonymous and recently created accounts were posting racist, xenophobic and anti-immigration messages beneath its own posts.
The group is already known in Westminster. In August its volunteers were confronted on a northern French beach by shadow home secretary Chris Philp, who accused them of facilitating illegal crossings.
Enforcement has changed the trade rather than ended it, with gangs now loading migrants onto fewer and larger vessels after police seizures cut their supply of inflatable dinghies.
Britain is paying France around £660 million (€760 million) to police its northern coastline, while the “one in, one out” returns deal agreed with Paris has cost about £56,000 (€65,500) for each person sent back.
Some 24 people died attempting the crossing last year, down from a record 73 in 2024.
