France‘s version of MI5 and scores of police mobilised to repel a planned ‘D-Day style invasion’ by British protesters demonstrating against small boat migrants yesterday.
The French authorities imposed a sweeping ban on gatherings between Calais and Dunkirk on Saturday, and threatened to arrest and deport anyone arriving from the UK.
British protest leader Daniel Thomas, an ex-convict banned from France after harassing charity workers last month, appeared to have slipped into the country via Belgium.
But his boasts that his self-styled ‘Operation Overlord’ would draw more than 15,000 ‘proud Englishmen’ to France to ‘stop the boats’ yesterday proved delusional.
In fact, just one thousandth of his predicted volunteer army arrived – and rather than slashing any dinghies, or demonstrating at a migrant camp, his band of around a dozen followers simply gathered on a beach and waved flags.
A simultaneous protest promoted by Thomas in Dover, which he claimed would ‘bring it to a standstill’, turned out to be a small gathering in a pub followed by a march down a road.
But French authorities, who had been appalled by attention-seeking visits to beaches and migrant camps by Thomas and fellow ‘right-wing patriots’ late last year, which were then posted online, were not taking any risks.
According to critics, French officials seemed markedly more concerned by the arrival of British protestors than they are by the tens of thousands of migrants setting off for England in dinghies every year.
A simultaneous protest promoted by Thomas in Dover, which he claimed would ‘bring it to a standstill’, turned out to be a small gathering in a pub followed by a march down a road
Anti-immigration protesters carrying the Union and St George’s flags at an entrance to Dover Docks on Saturday
A protester in Dover pictured shouting during a march after the group had been to a nearby pub
As well as large squads of Police Nationale officers, and gendarmes, those looking to stamp out British protests around Calais included ‘multiple members of the DGSI’, or General Directorate for Internal Security.
This is France’s principal domestic security service, and operates in much the same way as MI5 does in Britain.
‘Plain-clothes DGSI officers were out in force along the northern coast, and looking for British troublemakers,’ a senior law and order source told the Mail on Sunday.
‘They supported police and gendarmes in making sure there was no large scale invasion.’
Prefectures in the Nord and Pas-de-Calais areas of France also issued orders prohibiting any members of groups such as Raise the Colours (RTC) – a group Thomas split from last week, hours before he and nine of its members were banned from France – from operating over the weekend, citing ‘serious risks to public order’.
A French official statement read: ‘British nationals belonging to these movements, who are checked by law enforcement, will be returned to the border as quickly as possible.’
The statement referred to the group adhering to ‘a xenophobic and anti-immigration ideology that creates a clear risk of public disorder.
‘State services, particularly the internal security forces, will be fully mobilised to ensure the proper implementation of this order, with the aim of protecting migrants, who are often victims of exploitation by smuggling networks, and guaranteeing the safety of everyone on the coast.’
Thomas had claimed he would rally ‘thousands of British patriots’ for a special mission named after the D-Day operation of 1944, saying grandiosely that they would be arriving by ‘land, sea, and air’.
But by lunchtime on Saturday, he had only managed to post social media pictures of around a dozen men brandishing Union Jacks on a French beach, while claiming others had stopped at the border.
The deputy mayor of dinghy-departure hotspot Gravelines, near Calais, Alain Boonefaes, said: ‘These men have no right to come and try to enforce order in France.
Anti-immigration protesters carrying the Union and St George’s flags gather at an entrance to Dover Docks while taking part in a demonstration named Operation Overlord at Dover Docks
A man with a Union Flag is seen standing in front of a gate protecting a restricted zone at Dover Docks
‘They’re British, and they should maintain public order in their own country, not in France.
‘They have no right to come and intimidate and threaten anyone. They have no right to do this.’
The Raise the Colours group – which gained a profile last year by leading the campaign to fly the Cross of St George and Union flags from lampposts first in the Midlands, then across Britain – late last year began sending groups of up to half a dozen men to France to ‘stop the boats’.
They claimed to have found a dinghy buried in sand dunes, and slashed it before it could be used by migrants – and also posed for social media posts with other dinghies destrpoyed by police.
But they also filmed themselves shouting foul-mouthed abuse at migrants, female French journalists and charity workers – even falsely accusing the charity workers of being in charge of the dinghy voyages.
In December the Daily Mail saw them warned off by officers after flying a drone close to the nuclear power station at Gravelines, and attempting to pose as member of the press.
But their aggressive behaviour last week led to ten French travel bans being issued.
Without naming any of those banned, a statement from the Interior Ministry read: ‘Ten administrative bans from the territory have been imposed on British nationals, identified as activists within the Raise the Colours movement, who have carried out actions on French territory. Entry and residence in France are now prohibited for them.’
Members of Raise the Colours, and Thomas – who calls himself ‘Danny Tommo’ – face criminal prosecution for ‘threatening and assaulting’ those working with migrants.
A key incident that worried French authorities involved two nurses and support staff working with Médecines Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders, MSF) – the international humanitarian charity – who complained of being attacked by the group in December.
Michaël Neuman, head of MSF’s migration unit, said the banning orders ‘were expected.’
Mr Neuman explained: ‘We had sent a letter to France’s Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez France’s Interior Minister to express our concerns, because we are very aware of the danger posed by these groups.
‘These measures must not be exceptions but must become the norm so that nothing goes unpunished.’
A spokesman for Dunkirk prosecutors said ‘multiple complaints about the [Raise the Colours] movement’ were under investigation, and could result in prosecutions.
A French National Police spokesman for the area also confirmed ‘numerous complaints,’ particularly around the beaches of Dunkirk and Calais.
Many of these complaints were backed up by the British activists’ own images, including videos, which they proudly post on Facebook, X, Instagram and YouTube, while asking for donations, said the spokesman.
Under French law ‘violence’ extends to verbal insults, and other forms of intimidation.
Most of the complaints about Raise the Colours came from ‘local charities and human rights groups,’ said the police source.
A spokesman for the Utopia 56 migrant support group said: ‘Every time they’ve come, we’ve reported them.’
A woman uses a megaphone as anti-immigration protesters take part a demonstration named Operation Overlord at Dover Docks, in Dover on the Kent coast on January 24
A police liaison officer speaks to an anti-immigration protester gathered at an entrance to Dover Docks
In a statement, Raise the Colours claimed its activities were peaceful and it ‘does not support violence or any unlawful activity’, inspite of the videos clearly showing leading Raise the Colours figurehead Ryan Bridge shouting and swearing at migrants and charity workers.
It describes itself as a ‘grassroots movement for unity and patriotism’ – but following its split from Thomas last week, it had disassociated itself from his sudden plan to bring ‘Operation Overlord’ forward, saying there were concerns volunteers could be put in danger.
Thomas had put online a series of videos calling for volunteers to join him in France, suggesting the migrant camps of northern France were full of sex offenders of potential terrorists, as well as ‘dirty, dirty diseases’.
He says nothing to his followers abut his own criminal conviction in 2016, when he was jailed for two years for a bungled kidnap.
Portsmouth crown court heard Thomas and two fellow thugs had turned up at the victim’s home in Hampshire armed with knives, and punched and grabbed him in a failed bid to drag him out.
After they discovered they had got the wrong man, one of the gang apologised.
Thomas, who refused to speak to the Mail, says he is now a committed Christian.
Online, he claimed the turnout of a dozen men was a success, saying: ‘These patriots made it through. When governments fail to listen, ordinary people step forward.’
