Horror on Dunkirk beach as French police open fire on dinghy migrants
Two injured as rubber bullets used to stop illegal crossing
FRENCH police have shot migrants with potentially lethal rubber bullets to stop their illegal boat crossing the Channel to the UK.
An investigation by French judicial authorities was under way last night into the first known case of gun tactics to halt a migrant boat launch.
It marks a major escalation of tension on the beaches as night patrols struggle to stop boats heading for Britain.
The shooting happened in darkness at Dunkirk as eight Iranian Kurds carried a dinghy towards the sea. It was intended to be used to transport 40 migrants out of France.
Two Iranian Kurds hit by the bullets were taken to hospital, one with a fractured leg and the other with broken hand. Those carrying the boat claim that the group of gun-carrying police laughed at them as their injured comrades fell to the ground.
One of the shot migrants, 24-year-old Juanro Rasuli, was last night still in Dunkirk central hospital with a fractured left leg, which was wrapped in bandages. He did not want to speak out because of the fear of reprisals.
The second man, who was shot in the hand, is undergoing medical treatment as an outpatient.
The beach shooting is believed to have followed a noisy altercation between the Iranian Kurds intent on launching the boat and the French patrol unit determined to stop them.
The UK’s Home Secretary Priti Patel has threatened to withhold £54million in payments by Britain to the French government for beach patrols in northern France if officials do not reduce the stream of migrant boats.
This year over 17,000 migrants of multiple nationalities have reached the UK after making the 21-mile Channel crossing.
Those involved in the incident were asked by the Mail if they were people traffickers or assisting the trafficking gangs for money. They insisted they are would-be asylum seekers hoping to reach Britain.
Last night an Iranian Kurd calling himself Mohammed recalled what he saw of the shooting in the early morning of September 22.
At a coffee bar in a migrant camp in Dunkirk, he said: ‘There were eight of us holding the boat near the beach. We were getting ready to launch it for 40 people who wanted to cross... Then three or four police arrived in one vehicle. One policeman shot Juanro Rasuli at point blank range.
‘I can’t remember how many times they fired the rubber bullets.
‘When the police saw us, they shouted “stop”. We stopped and they still shot us. Then we ran away as best we could.’ A video of the aftermath of the shooting, taken by the migrants, shows Mr Rasuli lying on the ground with his leg bleeding. The other shot man shows his injured hand to the camera. A voice says in Kurdish: ‘You can see the police laughing at us.’
Rubber bullets are potentially lethal and have also caused blindness and permanent disabilities in those struck in the past. Typically, they have a metal core with a rubber coating and are often used in France in riot control.
They were also widely used by the RUC and the British army during the Troubles. The missiles were invented by the UK’s ministry of defence to be used on protesters in the North and, along with plastic bullets, they were responsible for the deaths of 17 people, including children. They also injured countless more. It is believed 120,000 rounds were shot from 1970 to 1997.
The migrants’ shooting took place five miles from Grande Synthe, a suburb of Dunkirk where hundreds of migrants live in squalid camps in woods awaiting a boat to Britain.
French judicial sources insist their beach patrols only use such a show of force when it is ‘proportionate’ and if the officers are placed in danger. They also claim the camp has been infiltrated by people smuggling gangs.
‘We stopped and they still shot us’