19/09/2025 – 10/10/2025

• According to InfoMigrants on 1 October 2025, French police have removed a migrant camp from a disused warehouse in Calais. The conditions of the site, which had housed up to 600 people, was described by the regional prefecture of Pas-de-Calais as “degrading and dangerous”. Authorities had prepared for the evacuation with previous visits, offering the residents to seek shelter in reception centers across the region, which was taken up by 170 people.  

• As reported by The Independent on 30 September 2025, France employed riot police to stop a group of migrants, among them at least 10 children, from reaching a beach in Gravelines, northern France. Police forces carried guns and tear gas, using their vehicles to prevent the group from advancing toward the beach, where they seemed to be expecting a dinghy. According to the report, a woman carrying a baby on her back was pushed back into the crowd by a police officer. 

• A new investigation by Le Monde, Der Spiegel, The Times and Arte published on 16 September 2025 has revealed that French security forces routinely employ lethal measures to stop small boats from reaching the French overseas territory of Mayotte. According to the report, examining a period from 2007 to 2025, French police are responsible for the death or disappearance of at least 24 people, including pregnant women and children. Interviews record a pattern of dangerous interception methods disguised as ‘rescue missions’, involving police boats intentionally striking vessels with migrants, or creating high waves to cause boats to capsize. Eyewitnesses reported that when people went overboard as a result, police ‘watched us drown’.