France will start intercepting small boats in English Channel following UK pressure
France has agreed to begin stopping small boats in the English Channel, after an extended period of pressure from the UK.
The change in policy follows the Prime Minister wrote to the President asking him to back the initiative and saying there currently "have no effective preventive measure" in the Channel.
French maritime police have been authorized to stop the migrant vessels at sea, but only before they've collected their migrants, according to authoritative confirmation.
French police have rarely acted to prevent the heavily loaded boats departing from the shoreline because it is considered excessively high a risk to both officers and civilians.
"It is crucial that we deploy these tactics this period... We have no effective prevention in the Channel."
Currently, a French naval police spokesperson says officers will start intervening at sea, with the aim of safeguarding human life.
Notably, the spokesperson excluded the use of entanglement devices to stop boats, which had previously been suggested as a possible method to snarl the propellers of the boats.
This determination to take action at all is a major advancement, coming after a brief change towards a stricter strategy this warmer season, which ceased when the previous government official departed from government.
That was highlighted in the summer month, preceding a meeting between the UK leader and French president, when French police were observed wading into the sea to damage the hulls of a boat.
Currently French officials will once more be permitted to stop boats prior to they collect asylum-seeking individuals from the beaches of northern France, although it's not clear how the small boats will be stopped.
Powerful gusts are presently delaying the start of intervention operations and the people-smuggling gangs will be seeking methods to adapt to evade detection, as they have frequently done in the past.
UK immigration authorities and Downing Street have been approached for comment.
Connected Developments
- Reasons Britain can't just return asylum seekers to French territory
- French government withdrawing from commitment to intercept asylum boats
UK immigration
Channel crossings
Border security
