PARIS (AP) — France said Wednesday that it has banned 10 members of a British group who attempted to stop migrants leaving French beaches on small boats bound for the U.K.
The ban on the members of the “Raise the Colours” group prevents them from entering or staying in France, the Interior Ministry said.
A ministry statement characterized the group's militants as “extreme right” and described their activities in France as a potential threat to pubic order. It said the activists made trips to France to hunt for and destroy small boats used on the migration route across the English Channel.
The group's activists have also carried out “propaganda activities" along the northern French coastline "aimed at the British public, which was called upon to strengthen the movement’s ranks in order to put an end to the migration phenomenon,” the statement added.
The ministry did not name the 10 British nationals but said they had been “identified as militants within the movement who carried out actions on French territory.”
Cross-Channel migration has become a thorn in relations between Britain and France in recent years and is a particularly divisive political issue in the U.K.
More than 41,000 people crossed the Channel to the U.K. in small boats last year, an increase on 2024 but fewer than the 2022 record, when more than 45,000 people made the crossing, according to the Home Office.
File - Town employees walk next to an inflatable boat punctured by French police and used by migrants to cross the Channel, Monday, Dec. 22, 2025 on the beach of Gravelines, northern France. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias, File)
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South African soldiers deployed to high-crime areas have dismantled illegal gold mining operations in a community near Johannesburg, forcing some illegal miners to flee and abandon their equipment.
Police and the army recovered various tools used by illegal miners, including generators and drill machines — equipment documented by an Associated Press photographer on Thursday.
Makeshift trenches with food supplies and utensils belonging to the miners were also dismantled, with clothing items left behind after the miners fled the site in Randfontein, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) to the west of Johannesburg.
The operations were part of a rare move by the government to deploy soldiers in some of the country's most crime-ridden areas, including in the Western Cape province that includes the city of Cape Town and the economic hub province of Gauteng.
With dozens of abandoned mine shafts lining the outskirts of Johannesburg, illegal mining is rife in the area as heavily armed crime syndicates and informal miners known as “zama zamas” enter the shafts in search of leftover deposits of gold or other precious minerals.
It is illegal to mine without a government license, and in some places, the conditions are dangerous.
Other provinces with abandoned shafts, like the North West and Mpumalanga, have also experienced high levels of illegal mining, sometimes with tragic consequences.
Authorities say there are an estimated 30,000 illegal miners in South Africa, operating in some of its 6,000 abandoned mine shafts.
The government has noted an increase in illegal mining, which it estimates is worth more than $4 billion a year just in gold lost to criminal syndicates.
The trade is believed to be predominantly controlled by migrants from neighboring Lesotho, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique, stoking anger among South African communities against both the criminal bosses and foreigners living in the local community.
Responding to questions from lawmakers on Thursday, President Cyril Ramaphosa said the deployment of the troops would take place alongside other measures, such as strengthening anti-gang units and illegal mining task teams.
“The police will also be working with the National Prosecuting Authority on multi-disciplinary task teams to target the leadership, finances, firearms and logistics of these criminal networks,” Ramaphosa said.
South African National Defense Force soldiers recover a generator left behind by illegal miners, during a patrol in Randfontein, in Johannesburg, South Africa, Thursday, March 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)
A South African National Defense Force soldier patrols in a dense bush where illegal miners are operating, in Randfontein, in Johannesburg, South Africa, Thursday, March 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)
South African National Defense Force soldiers retrieve clothing and food stock left by illegal miners, in Randfontein, in Johannesburg, South Africa, Thursday, March 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)
South African National Defense Force soldiers and police officers cross a water stream used by illegal miners, during a patrol in Randfontein, in Johannesburg, South Africa, Thursday, March 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)
South African National Defense Force soldiers and police officers load recovered generators and machinery left behind by illegal miners, during a patrol in Randfontein, west of Johannesburg, South Africa, Thursday, March 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)
