PARIS (AP) — Ten members of a British far-right group have been banned from entering France where they have been accused of destroying small boats used by migrants trying to reach the U.K., the French Interior Ministry said Wednesday.
The ban, pronounced Tuesday, bars the anti-migrant activists from the “Raise the Colours” group from entering or staying in France, the ministry said.
A statement said the group’s militants have been hunting for and destroying small boats used on the migration route across the English Channel from France to the U.K.
The group’s activists have also carried out “propaganda activities” along the northern French coastline “aimed at the British public, which was called upon to strengthen the movement’s ranks in order to put an end to the migration phenomenon.”
The ministry did not name the 10 British nationals but said they had been “identified as militants within the movement who carried out actions on French territory.”
Cross-Channel migration has become a thorn in relations between Britain and France in recent years and is a particularly divisive political issue in the U.K.
More than 41,000 people crossed the Channel to the U.K. in small boats last year, an increase on 2024 but fewer than the 2022 record, when more than 45,000 people made the crossing, according to the Home Office.
Copyright © 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.
