{"id":722217,"date":"2026-01-26T16:47:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T16:47:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/722217\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T16:47:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T16:47:12","slug":"two-british-vigilantes-arrested-in-france-over-anti-migrant-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/722217\/","title":{"rendered":"Two British ‘vigilantes’ arrested in France over anti-migrant action"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\t\t\t\tThe arrests came after protests were held on the northern French coast and Dover by an associate of Tommy Robinson\t\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n

Two Britons have been arrested by French police in Calais<\/a> suspected of being part of a \u201cfar right\u201d group planning to physically stop migrants crossing the Channel by small boat.<\/p>\n

The pair were detained on Sunday after allegedly sharing \u201cdiscriminatory remarks\u201d in a livestream video, suggesting they were part of a group of anti-migrant protesters recently banned from the country<\/a> for a plot they had dubbed \u201cOperation Overlord\u201d, French authorities said.<\/p>\n

The men will be deported back to the UK \u201cbased on the threat to public order\u201d, the Pas-de-Calais prefecture said in a statement.<\/p>\n

New FeatureIn ShortQuick Stories. Same trusted journalism.<\/p>\n

French police have not revealed the identities of those who have been arrested. <\/p>\n

Last week, France imposed a ban on anyone arriving from the UK to take part in planned anti-migrant demonstrations after calls were made on social media to carry out a protest over the weekend.<\/p>\n

The ban, which prohibits gathering between Calais and Dunkirk, has now been extended until Wednesday, with anyone found in breach of the order at risk of arrest and deportation. <\/p>\n

It comes after The i Paper first revealed last year that a plot was being hatched by British vigilantes, who\u00a0had already filmed themselves slashing migrant boats<\/a> in France, to recruit other anti-migration activists to help carry out and document a trip to the French coastline under the banner of \u201cOperation Overlord\u201d.<\/p>\n

This weekend, a small group of British men filmed themselves as they travelled to France<\/a> with leading anti-migrant vigilante and former bodyguard of Tommy Robinson, Daniel Thomas, who describes himself as a \u201cright-wing patriot\u201d.<\/p>\n

Thomas, formerly associated with flag-raising group called Raise the Colours<\/a>, gained traction online by filming himself approaching migrants<\/a> on Calais beaches and slashing the small boats<\/a> they use to cross the Channel<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\"\"A screenshot of Danny Thomas, front, with a gaggle of anti-migrant activists this weekend (Photo: Daniel Thomas)<\/p>\n

The real Operation Overlord \u2013 the Allies\u2019 invasion of occupied Europe during the Second World War, beginning on D-Day, 1944 \u2013 was considered a complete success and was planned in absolute secrecy.<\/p>\n

But last week Thomas, who refers to himself as Danny Tommo, was forced out of the Raise the Colours group<\/a> and retaining the \u201cOperation Overlord\u201d title, continued to plan a protest in France on his own \u2013 despite the ban being issued. <\/p>\n

\"\"Video from Dover shows a small group waved flags and shouted at staff at the port on Saturday (Photo: South East Patriots)<\/p>\n

Videos that Thomas streamed live on Saturday show that he and around a dozen men journeyed to France, while approximately 30 to 50 supporters formed a small crowd at the port in Dover.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a raving success,\u201d one of the men who turned up in Dover said in a separate livestream video. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t a massive group of people there but the job got done.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tYour next read<\/p>\n


\n\t\t\t\"Article <\/a><\/p>\n

In the last seven days, government figures show 275 people in four boats have crossed the English Channel in small boats without permission to enter the UK.<\/p>\n

The UK government says they are \u201cbearing down on small boat crossings\u201d and that 40,000 crossing attempts have been stopped under Labour. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The arrests came after protests were held on the northern French coast and Dover by an associate of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":722218,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[29264,2000,299,1105,36,5804,5805],"class_list":{"0":"post-722217","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-dover","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-far-right","12":"tag-france","13":"tag-migrant-crisis","14":"tag-migrants"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115962423012623760","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=722217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/722218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=722217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=722217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=722217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}