France has agreed to start intercepting small vessels in the English Channel, after months of pressure from the United Kingdom.
The policy change comes after Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer wrote to President Emmanuel Macron urging him to back the plan and saying that we currently “do not have any effective deterrent” in the Channel, according to a Le Monde report.
French security forces will be able to stop small boats at sea, but only before they have picked up their passengers, maritime police confirmed to the BBC.
French police have rarely intervened to stop overcrowded boats leaving the coast because they consider it too great a risk to both officers and civilians.
Le Monde reported that Sir Keir’s letter said: “It is essential that we deploy these tactics this month… We have no effective deterrent in the Channel.”
Now, a spokesperson for the French maritime police affirms that agents will begin to intervene at sea with the aim of safeguarding human life.
In particular, the spokesperson ruled out the use of nets to intercept ships, which Le Monde previously reported could be used to entangle ships’ propellers.
The decision to intervene is an important step forward, following a short-lived shift towards a more aggressive approach this summer, pushed by former Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau.
The BBC reported in March that Retailleau wanted these interceptions to begin, but had admitted it was a difficult issue for his government to resolve due to its maritime surveillance rules.
In the run-up to the July summit between Sir Keir and President Macron, the BBC witnessed French police heading into the sea south of Boulogne to cut into the sides of a ship.
But then the interventions dwindled, and the UK seems surprised that it took so long to resolve the problems that Retailleau had already identified and said it would fix.
Now French authorities will again be allowed to intercept boats before they pick up migrant passengers on the beaches of northern France, although it is unclear how the small boats will be stopped.
Currently, strong winds are delaying the start of interceptions and human trafficking gangs will look for ways to adapt to avoid interceptions, as they have done so many times in the past.
A UK government spokesperson said: “We continue to work closely with our French partners on the shared challenge of illegal migration, and have already worked to ensure officials in France review their maritime tactics so they can intervene in shallow waters.”
