In 2024 and 2025, 22 children lost their lives at the UK-France border.
These deaths did not happen in isolation. The UK government will have spent at least £1.44 billion funding border enforcement in northern France since 2014, including a new figure announced in April 2026 of £662 million – while at the same time restricting and removing access to safe routes to asylum.
STOP BORDER VIOLENCE is a new campaign from Humans for Rights Network, Project Play and Asylum Matters calling for an inquiry into how UK funding at the border in northern France has contributed to increasing state violence and fatalities.
Crucial research by Humans for Rights Network and Project Play highlights the role that UK Government policy and funding decisions have had on an escalation of border violence and unprecedented deaths at the border.
The campaign has a clear demand: an immediate public statutory inquiry into the UK government’s funding of violent and dehumanising border enforcement in northern France.
JOIN THE CAMPAIGN
Sign our petition calling for a public statutory inquiry into the UK government’s funding of violent and dehumanising border enforcement in northern France. We need an urgent inquiry into how our funding and policy is causing deaths and trauma for people at our borders.
Nowhere Safe: The Impact of UK-Funded Border Violence against Children in Northern France – Project Play, February 2026
“You can’t stay but you can’t go”: State violence at the UK-France border – Humans for Rights Network, December 2025
“We want to be safe”: the impact of violence against children on the UK-France border in 2024 – Project Play, July 2025