The group, still wearing life jackets, threw stones at police officers carrying tear gas after they were forced back from the beach on Saturday morning. French police had chased the migrants away from a beach in Gravelines after cutting up and deflating a number of rubber dinghies they planned to use for the crossing. The video shows police, carrying CS spray, walking towards a large group of people throwing rocks at police before retreating into nearby woods. French authorities told The Telegraph that around 200 migrants are believed to still be hiding in the sand dunes around Gravelines, waiting for an opportunity to sneak past authorities and take to the sea in inflatable rubber dinghies provided by smuggling gangs.
Spotters watch out for the police
On Friday, large groups of young men were seen boarding public buses at midday after leaving a large camp in Grand-Synthe, before walking through a network of small forest paths to reach the dunes behind the beach. The smugglers then told them to hide among the densely forested sand dunes until the police moved on and they could launch their boats. The group consisted mostly of young men, but there were also a small number of women with small children among them. ‘Spotters’ were also seen at various locations around Gravelines Beach, some posing as fishermen. The observers were understood to be keeping an eye on the police and making sure they did not follow the migrants as they left the camp. Among the sand dunes at Gravelines were a series of makeshift stations set up by smugglers on previous trips. One large site even had a wooden watchtower built into the trees to allow gangs to keep watch. Large numbers of small boats were expected to set off this weekend after bad weather halted all canal crossings since October 31.
