British far-right activists have in recent weeks increased their efforts to stop unregulated migration in the English Channel by travelling to northern France in a bid to deter migrants from making the crossing.
Videos posted on social media show members of far-right group Raise the Colours in Normandy claiming to have found and destroyed small boats that would have made the journey across the Channel and directly confronting supposed undocumented migrants.
The activists say they are a “civilian border control force” aiming to “stop an invasion of illegal immigrants” coming to the UK.
They claim the UK and France are not doing enough to stop illegal migration across the Channel.
But migrant support associations say lack of action from French and British authorities to stop the group is “encouraging violent and xenophobic practices”.
“These are people who come to France with the express intention of committing crimes such as harassment. They are a threat to public order," said a spokesperson from L’Auberge Des Migrants, one of nine associations that issued a statement calling for France and the UK to take action against the group.
“The measures that are being taken [by the authorities] are totally inadequate in view of the real threats that members of this far-right group pose,” they added.
Small boats
In the past decade, the English Channel has become the largest port of entry for illegal migration into the UK, with 37,000 people making the crossing in 2024 – one of the highest annual levels in the past ten years.
The figures broadly are broadly similar across Europe, where the rate of unauthorised arrivals by sea has risen rapidly since 2015, most significantly in Italy, Spain and Greece.
The small boats – meaning the inflatable vessels often used to ferry migrants between Calais and Dover – have become a particularly provocative issue in the UK.
Britain’s far right has for years pushed the narrative that the boats are filled with criminals who pose a threat to British society, especially women and children.
For a “significant minority” of UK voters, the small boats have come to symbolise the idea “that the UK government has lost control of its borders, and that many of those trying to get into the country are from countries whose culture and religion is seen as alien and dangerous”, said Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London.
Amid the rising popularity of right-wing party Reform UK, the issue has also come to dominate mainstream politics, with Keir Starmer’s government announcing numerous measures to deter illegal Channel crossings.
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Operation Overlord
Against a backdrop of increasingly vocal anti-immigration sentiment, Raise the Colours spearheaded a campaign over the summer to cover the UK in national flags.
The group has denied the flagging campaign is an attempt to promote racist messages, although the UK’s far right has a long history of using national flags as a symbol to promote its values.
In recent times, these include “issues such as managing borders, criticising government policies around immigration and broad patriotic themes,” said Paul Jackson, professor in the history of radicalism and extremism at the University of Northampton.
The flagging campaign has been run “in ways that almost stake a nativist claim onto neighbourhoods and is used to intimidate people, explicitly targeting migrants”, added Aaron Winter, senior lecturer in sociology at Lancaster University.
In the past few months the group has documented journeys to France online, including livestreams of members posing as accredited journalists to confront suspected illegal migrants and hiding in sand dunes to watch nighttime activity in the Channel.
One video posted to the group’s social media channel in early November shows a member wading in to the shallows, shouting that suspected undocumented migrants on a boat in the distance are “potential rapists” and “murderers”.
“We don’t want them in our country!” he shouts, before later calling for viewers to join the campaign and travel to France.
In late November the group announced it would increase its activities in France in an operation dubbed "Overlord" – also the codename for the Battle of Normandy, in which more than 160,000 allied troops landed in France to begin the liberation of Western Europe during World War II.
‘Stop the boats’
Another video shows the leaders of the group being stopped for an identity check by French police, before being allowed to continue.
“Within ten seconds they opened the window of their vehicle to continue openly harassing the migrants, even though the police were just ten metres behind them,” said the spokesperson from L’Auberge Des Migrants.
“There is a striking discrepancy. The migrants, who are covered by international protections, are constantly being checked, expelled and dispersed [by the police]. And, yet, when far-right groups suddenly turn up, nothing is done. These people move around the coastline completely freely, harassing exiles live on social networks,” they said.
Members of Raise the Colours were detained by French police for a few hours on December 5 before being released.
The group has claimed online that it has amassed 5,500 people who say they are willing to travel to France and “stop the boats”. Along with calling for volunteers, it has appealed for donations, stab-proof vests, thermal cameras, drones and encrypted radios.
Raise the Colours did not respond to FRANCE 24’s request for comment.