French police separate migrant children from their mothers on Dunkirk beach
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Athree-year-old Eritrean boy has crossed the Channel in a small boat without any family after French police forcibly separated parents and children on Dunkirk beach. During chaotic scenes, The Times also witnessed officers from France’s CRS police force pulling two children from their mother to prevent her climbing on to a boat, when her other two children and husband were already on board.
The three-year-old boy’s pregnant mother was held back and stopped from joining the vessel on Saturday morning, despite him already being on board.
Saturday was one of the busiest days of crossings so far this year although numbers still remain far below those of 2025 — 325 migrants reached Britain in six boats, bringing the total so far this year to 6,796, a drop of 41 per cent compared to the same point last year.
While blocking women and children, police stood by as a man strongly believed to be a people smuggler co-ordinated the boarding of migrants waiting on the beach, pushed the boat off, then waded back to shore and walked away. He was neither arrested nor stopped.
As dawn broke over Malo-les-Bains, the main beach in Dunkirk, CRS officers patrolled back and forth, while two rescue vessels hovered off shore. Between the rescue vessels, a dinghy — already laden with passengers — appeared from the west and began taxiing in.
By 7am, three groups of migrants had run on to the beach from side streets in Dunkirk. A second dinghy arrived from the direction of the Belgian border, also acting as a “taxi boat” to collect more migrants.
Some police drew batons as they tried to intercept the group crossing the beach, mostly grabbing those at the back, including women and children.
Salem Tedros, 33, from Eritrea, had arrived at Dunkirk beach with her husband and four children. But as he and two of the children boarded, CRS officers got between the family, splitting them in two.
Pictures and footage captured by The Times then show a male officer pulling two children from Tedros and holding them to prevent her boarding. At one point, the officer held her son Alexander, six, and grabbed the arm of her five-year-old daughter while Tedros tried to hold onto her other hand.
The children were taken away by police and passed to a female officer. Tedros started towards the waves and gestured towards the boat while a police officer held her son and daughter on the beach.
Alexander tried to run towards where his mother was waving to the boat, but was brought back by police. He called out “Papa” as the officer turned him away from the sea.
“Please, I have two children,” Tedros cried, knee-deep in the water, torn between the boat and her family on the beach.
Unable to leave the two children on shore, she cried as the boat left with her baby, her nine-year-old and her husband on board.
“It is dangerous for you,” the officer told her. Another asked her: “Where is your lifejacket? Look at the sea.”
“Yes, come back to your children,” an officer called back to her, seemingly unaware that she meant her other two children in the boat, the family now separated. Alexander called “Mama, please come back”, first in Tigrinya and then in English, from the officer’s arms.
As the boat departed, an officer told her to take her children. “Mama’s here,” she told them.
Beside her on shore, her young daughter stood silent while Alexander watched the sea where his father and siblings were disappearing. “It is very far,” he said.
“It is not OK,” Tedros said. “I told them, they do not listen to me. If you stop a family, why only some? Why take a family apart?”
Merkeb, 26, also from Eritrea, had passed her three-year-old son to a male friend she had met in the camps, as she is heavily pregnant. He waded out and boarded the boat with the child. But as she followed him to the boat, police officers intercepted her and held her back, despite her pleas.
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She carried two lifejackets, one adult and one child-sized, and collapsed on the sand crying as the boat left with her son.
Volunteers from the charity Utopia 56 assisted her as she sobbed on the beach. Later, as volunteers provided hot drinks and fresh clothes to those who hadn’t made it on the boat, she paced the street, asking both volunteers and other migrants: “Do you think he is OK?”
The dinghy carrying the child was escorted to the British border by the French rescue vessel Ridens, and at about midday those on board were transferred to the Border Force vessel Ranger.
The Times understands that the child arrived in Britain safely and is being cared for.
A co-ordinator at Utopia 56 said when police chased migrants on the beach, women and children were often those blocked.
She said: “What we’ve seen recently is fathers might be carrying the child, and that police block women and other children, so the men make it to the boat.
“But the police won’t let the woman join. It happened in March as well. We met a woman who couldn’t run on the beach while carrying her child, so a man carried the child. Then police stopped the woman, and the child left without her mother.”
In one case Utopia 56 is aware of, a child was taken off a boat by the coastguard and returned to its parents on shore, but in others the parents would have to find another small boat to reach the UK.
“Everything happens very fast on the beach. Police use tear gas, people are being chased, and so everything is rushed,” she said. “But once boats depart, sometimes the communication gets better and situations can be resolved.”
Most unaccompanied child asylum seekers arriving in Britain are between 15 and 17, and it is very rare for any under ten to arrive without a relative or guardian. Upon arrival in Britain, they are taken to Kent Intake Unit for assessment before being placed into the care of local authority children’s services.
A Home Office spokeswoman said the government was “working tirelessly to put people smugglers behind bars and keep vulnerable people out of harm’s way”.
She said: “This builds on joint action which has stopped more than 42,000 illegal migrants attempting to cross the Channel since the election.
“The safety and welfare of unaccompanied children is paramount, and we work to ensure immediate care and support from the moment they arrive.”
Charities condemned the police actions witnessed by The Times.
Imran Hussain, executive director of communications and external affairs at the Refugee Council, said: “Forcibly separating children from their parents would be a disturbing development.
“We hope the French authorities look into this case and also confirm that this is an inappropriate tactic that would only add to the existing dangers of these crossings.”
French police were contacted for comment.
