French authorities have stopped 185 attempted small-boat departures towards Britain during the first three months of a strengthened UK-France agreement aimed at disrupting people-
smuggling networks and preventing migrants from reaching the English Channel.
Figures supplied by the French authorities cover the period from 27 April to 2 August and indicate that 61% of potential small-boat crossing events were prevented. That represents an increase of almost five percentage points compared with the same period last year.
The operation also prevented more than 4,300 people from attempting to cross the Channel, while French officers are believed to have disrupted hundreds of additional attempts before migrants reached the coastline.
The results form part of a wider effort by Britain and France to tackle the criminal networks organising increasingly frequent Channel crossings.
French officers have used a combination of beach patrols, surveillance technology, vehicle searches and maritime operations. Their interventions have included stopping boats before launch, confiscating engines and other equipment, dispersing groups of migrants and arresting suspected smugglers.
According to the French authorities, there were four weeks during the three-month period when every identified potential crossing was prevented, producing a 100% intervention rate.
One operation in May, near Calais, involved officers locating three groups containing almost 100 migrants. A boat concealed in vegetation was also discovered, together with an engine and four containers of fuel. The planned departure was stopped.
In another incident that month, French police dispersed a large group of migrants and arrested a suspected people smuggler several kilometres inland from the coast.
Surveillance technology also played a role in an operation near Dunkirk in July. Officers detected a large group moving towards the coastline and monitored them using specialist equipment before intervening to seize the boat they were carrying.
French units have additionally targeted vehicles transporting boats, engines and fuel towards launch sites. In May, officers stopped a vehicle carrying a boat, an engine, three fuel containers and a separate fuel tank. A suspected smuggler was arrested.
Two further suspected traffickers were detained in June after officers found a boat and fuel containers inside a vehicle transporting maritime equipment.
A Gendarmerie drone operation in July resulted in officers identifying a group carrying a boat engine. A subsequent search uncovered and seized the associated vessel.
The French authorities have also expanded efforts to prevent so-called migrant taxi boats from operating offshore. Since the introduction of new maritime tactics on 3 March, 12 such boats have been intercepted at sea, including three in the two weeks before the latest figures were released.
British officials say the measures are designed not only to stop individual crossings but also to disrupt the logistical infrastructure used by smuggling gangs, preventing boats from travelling further along the French coast to collect additional passengers.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said the early figures showed that the new agreement was already producing a tangible impact.
“Our new UK-France deal is already having a real impact,” she said, arguing that joint operations were stopping crossings before they could take place and putting pressure on the criminal organisations behind them.
She said Britain and France would continue targeting smugglers, confiscating their equipment and attempting to dismantle their business model.
Charlie Eastaugh, Border Security Command's director for maritime and small boats, said cooperation between the two countries had intensified and that French officers were taking increasingly direct action against potential launches when it was considered safe and lawful.
He said the operations were disrupting organised smuggling networks while also helping to reduce the risks faced by migrants attempting dangerous Channel crossings.
The UK government says the wider cooperation has contributed to more than 47,000 small-boat crossing attempts being prevented since the current government took office.
Removals from French beaches
The agreement also includes measures aimed at removing migrants from French beaches.
A trial scheme launched on 1 May has so far resulted in 119 migrants being detained, according to figures supplied by French authorities. Of those, 76 remained in detention, while others had been released or removed from France.
The government says 40 people detained under the scheme have been deported either to their countries of origin or to other EU states through which they had travelled.
The programme is operating while France develops a permanent Immigration Removal Centre in Dunkirk.
Additional resources have also been deployed along the French coast. Two new police units are now operating in the area, including a 50-member specialist riot police unit tasked with managing and dispersing large groups of migrants.
French authorities are also introducing expanded aerial and electronic surveillance, including drones, two helicopters and a new camera system intended to identify smuggling activity and monitor potential crossing sites.
Britain is increasing pressure on the criminal networks from its side of the Channel as well. The National Crime Agency has almost tripled the number of officers dedicated to tackling people smuggling since the beginning of 2025, from 276 to nearly 800.
The agency has seized more than 1,100 small boats and engines since the election, according to the Home Office.
The government says its broader immigration strategy is aimed at reducing the incentives for irregular migration, strengthening enforcement and increasing removals of people who have no legal right to remain in the UK.
It says more than 80,000 people have been returned since the government took office, as ministers seek to make control of the Channel crossings a central part of their border-security programme.
