One migrant was shot at point-blank
French police have fired rubber bullets at migrants to stop them from crossing the English Channel to reach UK shores.
During the night of September 22, numerous rounds of rubber bullets were fired at eight Iranian Kurds who were carrying a dingy towards the channel on a beach at Dunkirk.
The two men received medical treatment at hospital following their arrest, reports the Evening Standard.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, those involved insisted they were not human traffickers but asylum seekers hoping to reach the shores of the UK.
One man told the paper: “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 to your country.”
He continued: “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.”
24-year-old Juanro Rasuli is still receiving medical treatment for a fractured leg.
At the same time, home secretary Priti Patel has threatened to withhold £54million in payments to the French if the amount of attempted crossings does not decrease.
The number of English channel crossings has reached 17,085 this year alone, a number which has doubled since 2020 when the number was 8,417.
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