A French police officer stands on the beach at Gravelines as a French maritime police rib approaches a small boat off the coast in the background, taken in July.
France has agreed to begin intercepting small boats crossing the Channel, after months of pressure from the UK.
The policy shift follows a letter from Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to President Emmanuel Macron, in which he urged the French leader to support the plan, saying the UK currently "have no effective deterrent" in the Channel, according to Le Monde.
Under the new approach, French security forces will be allowed to stop small boats at sea—but only before passengers have boarded, the maritime police confirmed to the BBC. Previously, French police rarely intervened due to the perceived risk to officers and civilians.
‘Le Monde’ reported that Sir Keir’s letter read: "It is essential that we deploy these tactics this month... We have no effective deterrent in the Channel."
A spokesperson for the French maritime police said officers will now act to safeguard human life, while ruling out the use of nets to entangle boat propellers—a tactic previously reported by ‘Le Monde’.
The move marks a significant development, after a brief push for a more aggressive approach this summer led by former Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau. The BBC reported in March that Retailleau had wanted interceptions to begin but acknowledged the challenge posed by existing maritime policing rules.
Ahead of July’s summit between Sir Keir and President Macron, the BBC observed French police wading into the sea south of Boulogne to slash the sides of a boat. However, such interventions later declined, prompting surprise in the UK that problems Retailleau had identified months earlier remained unresolved.
French authorities will now be allowed to stop boats before they pick up migrants on northern French beaches, although it remains unclear exactly how these operations will be conducted.
Strong winds are currently delaying the start of interceptions, and people-smuggling gangs are likely to adapt, as they have 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 we have already worked to ensure officers in France review their maritime tactics so they can intervene in the shallow waters." Photo by Dickelbers, Wikimedia commons.