10 signatures reached
To: Home Secretary
Stop Border Violence: Public Inquiry Now
The UK government must investigate its role in deadly border violence!
Project Play's new report, Nowhere Safe: The Impact of UK-Funded Border Violence against Children in Northern France, shows how children are directly impacted by violent policies. The report shows that UK funding and policy is responsible for deaths at the border, echoing the findings of Humans for Rights Network's 2025 report, You can't stay, but you can't go: State Violence at the UK-France Border. A group of French MPs have recently launched an inquiry into how joint UK-French funding has affected people’s lives at the border. It is time for the UK to do the same.
There must be a full statutory inquiry into UK funding and policy relating to the border, how it has enabled human rights abuses, and the way it has put lives at risk.
Join Project Play and Humans for Rights Network in calling on the UK government to investigate this issue now!
Why is this important?
In 2024 and 2025, 22 children lost their lives at the UK-France border. Their names were Abadeh, Mohamed, Roula, Sara, Abdelaziz, Mohammed, Ishannullah, Sablia, Meri, Mansur, Maryam, Salah, Agdad, and 8 unnamed children. Many more adults were also killed. We remember and mourn them. Their memory must be honoured by an end to the violence that led to their deaths.
Project Play works with children at the border, offering play sessions - a chance for children to relax, have fun and have access to some opportunities for personal development. Children frequently tell us about their experiences while living in Calais and Dunkirk and trying to cross the UK-France border. In recent years, children are experiencing more and more violence at the hands of the state.
We have received countless reports of police using tear gas against groups of children including young babies. We have also met many children who are terrified of the police after repeated exposure to police eviction operations, where the police clear living sites and confiscate tents, toys, and other personal belongings. Children also experience traumatic failed crossing attempts, sometimes falling into the water or witnessing the death or injury of other people trying to cross the Channel. There are many more difficult experiences that children report to us every day.
As research by Humans for Rights Network shows, the UK government is responsible for the situation at the UK-France border. If the UK created safe and accessible routes for people to cross the Channel without risking their lives, there would be no need for people to make dangerous crossings in small boats and lorries. But instead of doing that, the UK government has given at least £784 million to France since 2014, to securitise the border and attempt to stop people from crossing. We know this money has funded increased police presence on the beaches, and according to the French Interior Minister, 720 police officers out of 1200 patrolling the border daily are funded by the UK. In 2025, the UK government tried to persuade the French police to intervene when boats are up to 300m from the shore, even though 65 people died within 300m from the shore in 2024.
