Overview
- The Oye-Plage intervention, filmed Sunday, showed an officer wading in shallow water and cutting an inflatable carrying about 25 people, which then deflated as passengers stepped back to the beach.
- Utopia 56 filed complaints with France’s Defender of Rights and the gendarmerie inspectorate, arguing the act endangered lives and urging investigators to determine if the boat was still afloat when it was punctured.
- The Pas-de-Calais gendarmerie said the dinghy had run aground and that officers lawfully neutralised it to stop a return to sea, with no injuries reported and no arrests made.
- The incident comes after a £660 million UK–France deal expanded French beach patrols and a policy to intercept small taxi boats, with practical stop limits near 20 people to avoid creating a drowning risk.
- Separate from the videoed stop, two females aged 16 and 29 were found dead Sunday after an overloaded boat ran aground near Neufchâtel-Hardelot, as Channel arrivals this year reach about 7,300.