Emma YeomansSeptember 22, 2026 at 6:43 PM GMT+1
Worrying scenes in the Channel today, for all interested in asylum policy and maritime tactics. A small boat from Normandy spent more than 30 hours at sea. Those on board now on their 2nd rescue vessel as Border Force forced to play cat and mouse with far-right activists who have their own boat. This'll take quite a thread to explain. 1. Yesterday, possibly late morning, a dinghy departed from north of Caen. It seemed lost, and went east along the Baie de la Seine for a long time without pushing outwards towards the UK. It was followed by 4+ French rescue vessels. 2. It did not turn back overnight, remarkably. Instead, sometime between midnight and 2am, those on board began steering for the UK. The track of the French rescue vessel Abeille Liberte shows its route. Those on board were finally brought on board an RNLI lifeboat at around 4pm this afternoon.
3. But around lunchtime, Daniel Thomas/Danny Tommo started livestreaming himself heading out to sea on a speedboat. This probably isn't the boat his followers bought him, which he has sunk (unless he got it salvaged and fixed).
thetimes.com
Danny Tommo’s boat for policing Channel accidentally sinks
www.thetimes.com
4. Following the public track of the Abeille Liberte, Thomas and his group headed into the shipping lanes. Two lifeboats set out from Sussex, and he immediately used a livestream to berate them. They switched their AIS tracking off, presumably in light of the extreme abuse the RNLI has faced. 5. After around 30 hours at sea, the dinghy was intercepted by the RNLI and those on board transferred to two lifeboats. Two lifeboat personnel tried to secure the empty dinghy. Thomas yelled abuse and knifed the dinghy to deflate it - with a rescuer still on board.
6. As far as we can see, the rescuer was okay - though this is bordering on attempted murder. RNLI then headed towards the Solent, AIS off and chased by the far-right. Authorities in Portsmouth likely were warned that people would be offloaded and processed at Gosport, so Thomas rallied activists. 7. However before they could get there, the asylum seekers on board RNLI lifeboats were quickly moved to a Border Force cutter instead, which is now heading east (probably to Dover, and the secure site of Western Jet Foil). Cat-and-mouse at sea as they try to avoid activists both on land and sea. 8. So having departed French beaches sometime yesterday morning, with a sea temperature of around 17, they will only be brought ashore in Britain in a couple of hours. Thomas is nearly out of fuel, and is heading for Gosport, which has been closed off due to his activists. Heavy police presence. 9. French authorities have just confirmed there are around 60 people on the small boat, and it set off at around 9am yesterday. Expected to be a 36+ hour crossing. For comparison, boats leaving around Calais normally take 4-8 hours to reach UK waters. 10. French authorities putting out a fairly direct warning that attempts to interfere with their actions in the Channel can be prosecuted. Thomas/Tommo is I believe subject to an entry ban to France, which he is thought to have violated once so far.