MIGRANTS have set up a camp close to the D-Day landmark Utah Beach from where a boat set off heading to Portsmouth last weekend – the longest known Channel crossing yet.
And The Sun on Sunday has identified the beach launch point – just several miles away from a camp where the migrants keep chickens and say they will stop at nothing to reach the UK.
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At least four attempted crossings have been launched from the camp near Cherbourg, including last Sunday’s 140-person mega dinghy which landed 70 miles across the Channel at Portsmouth, sparking protests by hooded Patriots.
Céline Clement, 45, from nearby village Sainte-Marie-du-Mont, stumbled across identity papers, shoes, rucksacks and other objects while walking on an access road by Utah Beach the morning after the migrants set sail in the dead of night last Saturday.
She said: “There must have been about 10 pairs of shoes – there were water bottles and speakers for music too.
“The papers were like identity cards with names and surnames, but they also gave instructions on what to do in case of shipwreck.”
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She also said that dinghies were already setting sail from the beach two years ago.
Céline added: “It’s not the first time – [migrants] have already come here to try to launch crossings.
“It’s not regular but the first time was about two years ago.
“This is the second crossing I’ve seen personally.
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“The first time they tried to set sail but it didn’t work, and the boat was left in the water next to the D-Day museum on Utah Beach for a long time.”
A spokesperson for French NGO Itinérance told The Sun on Sunday that another attempted crossing from Utah Beach was foiled when an outboard motor with its serial number scratched out was found in Sainte-Marie-du-Monte in 2024.
She said: “This suggests that the smuggling routes are changing.
“But the passage west of Cotentin [west of Utah Beach] is even more dangerous for migrants.
“The increased police patrols [near Calais] are only making the route [to the UK] longer and even more dangerous.”
At the migrants camp Rafik Zaza, 25, from Afghanistan, said that the UK was still his ideal destination.
Our reporter found the camp is lined with dozens of tents, and has a shower, a makeshift gym and even a pen full of chickens providing eggs for residents.
It is also just a 45-minute bus or taxi drive from Utah Beach, making the journey by road much easier and closer than Calais, which is a four-hour drive away.
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Rafik said that the camp is inhabited by dozens of Afghan males, all of whom are intent on seeking asylum in the UK.
He said: “I’ve not tried yet to go by boat to the UK, but others have.
“I have tried to board lorries going on the ferry to England from Cherbourg, but it’s harder now than it used to be.
“I want to go to the UK and everyone living here in the camp does as well.
“People die trying to get there but they still want to go.”
Cherbourg is home to a large community of Afghan asylum seekers – many are housed by the French state in the Octeville neighbourhood, known locally for its issues with crime.
Despite the crossings from this far-flung part of Normandy happening last weekend, senior officials in Border Force, the Home Office and Downing Street are reported to have said they do not believe this is the start of a new strategy by the criminal gangs.
One Border Force source said: “It’s too early to say for sure but there’s nothing to suggest that smugglers have changed their tactics.”
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But Rob McNeil, from Oxford University’s research project Migrant Observatory, told The Sun on Sunday that the aim of smugglers is to get dinghies into British waters, where they will be escorted to UK shores by the RNLI, regardless of the risk to passengers’ lives.
He pointed out that from Cherbourg, the distance to British waters is less than anywhere else on the French coast except from the Calais area.