Nobody knows what happened yet
A breaking new story from France is that five people have been shot dead in a migrant camp in Calais. The facts are sparse, but what we know for sure is the following:
⦿ 2 Kurdish migrants were shot dead
⦿ 2 Security guards were shot dead
⦿ Another man described in some reports as a "businessman" was shot dead
⦿ The shooter later handed himself in to police
Furthermore, we know that the two Kurds were "clients" of people smugglers, and they had even attempted to cross the channel the very same day but had been intercepted by coastguards and brought back to France dripping wet.
The timing of the shooting suggests that the cause may have been linked to the paid-for crossing rather than just some random attacker deciding to shoot dead two Kurds who had been returned to France just hours before from the icy waters of the Channel. But, of course, this is speculation at the moment.
In recent months the UK's Labour government has been stressing cross-Channel cooperation, including landing migrants attempting to cross back in France, as well as cracking down on the gangs.
Soon after Labour was elected in July, UK and French coastguards started intercepting some cross-Channel migrants and bringing them back to France.
As reported by the Telegraph at the time:
"Border Force has taken migrants rescued from the Channel back to France in a new sign of Anglo-French cooperation over the small boats crisis. The catamaran Ranger assisted in a rescue of more than 70 migrants deep in French waters, then, at the request of the French authorities, took the rare step of returning the 13 it had picked up back to Calais. One migrant died and a further 71 were saved from the water in the joint Anglo-French operation after their boat deflated near Calais on Wednesday. The Border Force’s Ranger and an RNLI lifeboat from Dover were sent to support the French in the rescue after they requested help."
Something similar appears to have happened in the case of the unfortunate Kurds.
This co-operation is part of the "Starmer re-set," an attempt to improve in relations between Britain and France after years in which inefficient Tory Prime Ministers did little about Channel crossings except blame "Johnny Frog."
This co-operation is part of the "Starmer re-set," an attempt to improve in relations between Britain and France after years in which inefficient Tory Prime Ministers did little about Channel crossings except blame "Johnny Frog."
However, this co-operation may be raising tensions in the "cross Channel migrant community," possibly leading to acts of extreme violence of the sort that the happened today.
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