France has deployed deadly tactics for years to prevent small boats from reaching its overseas territories, despite saying such combative intervention was illegal in the English Channel.
An investigation has uncovered that at least 24 people have died or disappeared at sea after lethal confrontations between migrant boats and French border police in the Indian Ocean.
The aggressive tactics were used by police trying to prevent the thousands of people who cross each year from Comoros, a volcanic island nation off the coast of East Africa, to nearby Mayotte, which has been a French territory for 182 years.
Security forces off the island have been deploying militant tactics such as ramming dinghies and circling them to make waves - violent manoeuvres considered illegal by the French government - according to an investigation by Lighthouse Reports in partnership with The Times.
The methods have led to the deaths of children and babies.
