Hours earlier, French police watch another launch – and do NOTHING

Turning their backs on a desperate human cargo...

THE mists of dawn lifted on a depressingly familiar scene yesterday as another group of migrants launched a dinghy into the English Channel – under the noses of French police.

Just hours before the drowning tragedy, officers sat idly by as this set of 40, including six children, trudged over sand dunes near Wimereux, north of Boulogne.

Under the gunmetal morning sky and bundled in black woolly hats and puffy coats, some of them – but not all – wore red life jackets that were easy to spot against the grey sands.

Willing to risk their lives on a potentially treacherous crossing to reach the shores of Britain, there was no stopping the group intent on casting off from the beach at daybreak. About 15 men scrambled over the dunes hauling their rubber dinghy on their shoulders.

Families trailed behind with the children, and behind them a smaller group of men lugged an outboard motor.

Britain is paying the French £54million to step up patrols, and it was less than 24 hours since Emmanuel Macron’s government had pledged that security forces would be in action ‘day and night’ from Dunkirk to the Somme.

Yet there was just a solitary police truck on the beach, which flashed its blue lights and circled the migrants, in a halfhearted apparent attempt to block their path to the sea.

It seemed easily deterred by a woman carrying a small child who simply stepped in front of the vehicle and let out a wail. The police vehicle raced off to patrol another part of the beach.

The boat was loaded with children and pushed out to sea, with a woman wading out in the freezing water declaring in broken English: ‘Go UK.’ Some of the migrants waved as they finally left the shoreline.

Their boat arrived in Britain shortly before 2pm, being rescued off the south coast of Kent by the RNLI.

In total some 600 migrants made the perilous journey across the Channel in makeshift boats yesterday, with Border Force and police appearing to be overwhelmed by the numbers arriving.

France has rejected British proposals to allow UK officers to work on the other side of the Channel to detect people-smuggling operations.

...as they reach UK, police and RNLI shepherd them to safety

Beginning their desperate journey: Just after dawn yesterday a group of 40 migrants, including six children, walk on to the beach at Wimereux, north of Boulogne 1

Members of the group, only a few wearing red life jackets, head towards the waves 6

The French police vehicle circles the alarmed group but fails to deter them from their mission 3

Looking frightened and confused, children are loaded into the dinghy 7

10

The determined migrants hoist the heavy green dinghy above their heads to make it easier to carry it across the wet beach 4

A young girl, wrapped up against the chill, watches as the dinghy is made ready 8

Up to their waists in the icy sea, the remaining migrants wade out to climb aboard 9

Two of those about to risk their lives stand by with black bags carrying their belongings, right 5

As a French police vehicle drives towards them, its headlights cutting through the early morning mist, a mother with a small child screams at the officers inside

Safe in Kent: Young migrant with British policeman