Migrants push past outnumbered French police to make perilous Channel crossing

A group of migrants react as they succeeded to get on an inflatable dinghy, to leave the coast of northern France and to cross the English Channel, in Wimereux near Calais, France, December 16, 2021. Picture taken with a drone. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol

WIMEREUX, France (Reuters) - In the early hours of Thursday on a beach in northern France, a small group of police with torches tries to stand in the way of dozens of migrants heading for the sea carrying a grey dinghy.

It's tense. The police are outnumbered. The migrants - who hope to make it to Britain on the final stretch of their long journeys fleeing war and poverty - are screaming.