- Members of the French coastguard are protesting the French government’s plan to intercept small boats attempting to cross the Channel, The Guardian reported on 23 October 2025. The customs union ‘Solidaires Douanes’, which has coastguards as its members, addressed a letter to French customs director general, Florian Colas, calling the interception plans “a deadly doctrine, which contravenes international conventions to which France is a signatory”. The union adds: “Such an inhumane, absurd and shameful doctrine risks provoking shipwrecks and deaths, for which the moral and criminal responsibility would rest entirely with the personnel responsible for carrying out the interventions”.
- In a press release from 16 October 2025, the United Nations Committee for the Rights of the Child has found that France is responsible for grave and systematic violations of the rights of unaccompanied migrant children, with many left homeless, without basic care and living in conditions described as ‘degrading’ and ‘contrary to human dignity’. The Committee’s latest report from 25 September 2025 concludes that France breached its obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child by violating a wide range of children’s rights, including the best interests of the child, the rights to health care and education, as well as the prohibition of detention for migration-related reasons and inhuman or degrading treatment, among others.
- As reported by RFI on 15 October 2025, seventeen humanitarian and activist organisations have filed an appeal with France’s highest administrative court, the Council of State, on Tuesday, 14 October. The appeal aims to block a British-French migration deal that allows the
oUK to return migrants arriving by boat in exchange for an equal number of visa-approved migrants from France. In a joint statement, the group said: “The implementation decree… is tainted with illegality, as it fails to comply with the procedure prescribed by the constitution”.
- On 13 October 2025, ‘United Against Inhumanity’ published their new ‘Border Surveillance Report’ for 2024. The report examines the humanitarian crisis at the Franco-Italian border, which presents a key entry point to Europe. The report was produced by Solidarity Program for Refugee Help (SPRH) Menton, a student-led association at the Menton campus of Sciences Po. Drawing on data from September 2023 to April 2024, the report is based on border observations, testimonies, and research conducted by student volunteers at the Menton campus of Sciences Po. The research aims to shed light on the diverse experiences of migrants – including minors, women and people facing health challenges – and to explore how European, Italian, French and migration policies impact these circumstances.