French authorities to begin stopping migrant vessels in English Channel following UK pressure
France has agreed to begin intercepting small boats in the English Channel, following months of insistence from the UK.
This policy shift comes after the British leader wrote to the President asking him to support the plan and saying there currently "lack any effective deterrent" in the Channel.
French maritime police will be allowed to intercept the small boats at sea, but exclusively prior to they've collected their passengers, according to official confirmation.
French police have rarely intervened to stop the heavily loaded boats departing from the shoreline because it is viewed as excessively high a risk to both officers and civilians.
"It is essential that we deploy these tactics this month... We have no effective deterrent in the Channel."
Currently, a French naval police representative says officers will start intervening at sea, with the aim of safeguarding lives.
Notably, the spokesperson ruled out the use of entanglement devices to stop boats, which had previously been suggested as a potential method to snarl the propellers of the vessels.
The decision to intervene at all is a major advancement, following a short-lived shift towards a stricter strategy this warmer season, which ceased when the former Interior Minister departed from government.
This was demonstrated in July, in the run-up to a meeting between the UK leader and French president, when French police were witnessed wading into the sea to damage the hulls of a vessel.
Currently French officials will once more be allowed to stop boats prior to they collect asylum-seeking passengers from the coastal areas of France's north coast, although it's uncertain how the small boats will be stopped.
Powerful gusts are currently postponing the start of intervention operations and the people-smuggling networks will be seeking methods to adapt to avoid detection, as they have done so often in the past.
UK immigration authorities and Downing Street have been approached for comment.
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- Reasons Britain can't just send back asylum seekers to French territory
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Channel crossings
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