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  "path": "/news/migrant-crisis-soldiers-iraq-afghanistan-small-boat-belgium",
  "publishedAt": "2026-05-21T03:59:47.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.gbnews.com",
  "tags": [
    "launch from Belgium",
    "EU would FORCE Britain to take in 'refugees' if Labour overturns Brexit",
    "Iranian man suspected of facilitating smuggling of 19 illegal migrants into Britain arrested",
    "Ex-Met Police officer 'astonished' at people smugglers using UK businesses to fund illegal crossings",
    "agreement worth £662million",
    "will not change anything",
    "launched from Belgium's coast",
    "The GB News Editorial Charter"
  ],
  "textContent": "\n\n\n\"Violent\" ex-soldiers from countries such as Irag or Afghanistan have massed at small boat launch sites on the Belgian coast, police have revealed.\n\nA growing number of military men have been spotted \"accompanying\" the boats - making it too dangerous for police to intervene, local force chief Nicholas Paelinck said this week.\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nWith French authorities taking a stricter approach to monitoring the would-be migrants, small boat smuggling gangs have moved to launch from Belgium.\n\nBut armed men have rendered authorities impotent to stop the boats.\n\n\"Normally, we try to puncture the boat beforehand to prevent the crossing to the United Kingdom,\" Mr Paelinck said.\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nTRENDING\n\nStories\n\nVideos\n\nYour Say\n\n\"But that is not possible here, because you see ex-military personnel from Iraq circling the boat to ensure the police cannot get to it.\n\n\"Officers were threatened by the soldiers, and a mirror was even smashed with an iron bar. We conducted a risk analysis, and it is too dangerous to operate on that beach anymore. We will not do that again.\"\n\nPolice have also found \"weapons of war and ammunition\" in migrant tent camps, and have warned it is \"only a matter of time\" before officers are confronted.\n\nOstend police chief Hannelore Hochepied told Belgian MPs it will only get more difficult, with summer a \"very busy period\" for his men.\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n\"The small boats usually set off in the early morning, so it’s all hands on deck for the local police, with a major impact on daytime capacity,\" he added.\n\nBelgium's coastal police receive support from federal police but have called for further federal aid to tackle smuggling gangs.\n\nThis includes technological support such as high-performance surveillance cameras, thermal cameras at key locations, sensors on access roads to the beach and drone technology.\n\nRob Bates, director at the Centre for Migration Control, told GB News the presence of ex-soldiers was worsening a migrant \"invasion\".\n\n\"We're talking about the fact that they are coming from countries that are in a state of permanent conflict, and they have been almost incubated in a culture and a society where it's inevitable that they will have encountered some form of violence at some point and maybe been involved in combat and conflict,\" Mr Bates warned.\n\n### LATEST ON THE MIGRANT CRISIS:\n\n\n\n\n  * EU would FORCE Britain to take in 'refugees' if Labour overturns Brexit\n  * Iranian man suspected of facilitating smuggling of 19 illegal migrants into Britain arrested\n  * Ex-Met Police officer 'astonished' at people smugglers using UK businesses to fund illegal crossings\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nBritish politicians have been reluctant to treat small boat crossings with the \"level of severity\" needed, while the British Government has taken a \"lackadaisical attitude\" to the crisis, he added.\n\nMr Bates said: \"I think, unfortunately, as the flows shift up from Belgium to France, it just shows Labour's folly of putting all their eggs in the French deal basket.\n\n\"And actually, this is now a situation where any collaboration with European partners won't yield the results that we need them to.\n\n\"It's time to just finally take that step and embark on a policy of detention and deportation.\"\n\nLast month, Shabana Mahmood signed an agreement worth £662million with the French Government in an attempt to curb small boat launches.\n\nBut French politicians have said the deal \"will not change anything\" to stop the influx of migrants across the Channel.\n\nMr Bates also warned migrants in Britain had become a \"permanent invasion\" - with the total number of arrivals now outnumbering the British Army.\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n\"We are facing something here that could wreak huge, huge havoc - not just socially and fiscally - but actually in terms of the security and well-being of hundreds of thousands of Britons.\n\n\"I don't know how many more flashing red lights we have to see on the dashboard before ministers start to treat this with the severity it does deserve.\"\n\nLast month, GB News revealed how at least 250 small migrants had launched from Belgium's coast in a single day.\n\nA total of 7,576 asylum seekers have crossed into Britain through the Channel so far this year, with an average of 65 people per vessel from 15 May 2025 to 14 May 2026.\n\nA Home Office spokesman said: \"We are aware of dangerous and illegal small boat launches from Belgium. Through continued shared intelligence and close partnerships with Belgian authorities, numerous others have been successfully prevented to prevent illegal arrivals to the UK.\n\n\"Our work with France has already stopped more than 42,000 illegal migrants attempting to cross the Channel since the election. We have removed or deported almost 60,000 people who were here illegally.\n\n\"But we are going further to remove the incentives that draw illegal migrants to this country and increase removals and deportations of those with no right to be here.\"\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n**Our Standards: The GB News Editorial Charter**",
  "title": "'Violent ex-soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan' massing at small boat launch sites on Belgian coast"
}