France ready to intercept Channel migrants on boats bound for UK

Announcement of new strategy expected at summit in London next month

Police enter the water to try to stop migrants boarding small boats that had come from further down the coastline to pick them up, in Gravelines, France. Getty Images

France is working on new rules of engagement that would allow its police to board small boats up to 300 metres from the coast to stop them from reaching Britain, the Interior Ministry has told The National.

The neighbours hope to unveil the measures at next month's UK-France Summit, according to a document seen by Reuters. "Today, we can only intervene to rescue a boat at sea," a source at the French Interior Ministry said on Wednesday.

"We wish to make changes to this [existing] framework in order to be able to operate in shallow waters, up to 300 metres from the coast, and thus intercept 'taxi boats', while respecting the principles of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea."

The reasons for rising numbers attempting to cross the English Channel are favourable weather and new smugglers' strategies that have generated a "massive influx of nationals from the Horn of Africa", the ministry said.

As a result, the average load of each illegal boat has increased. Small boats are typically 8m long and are built to carry up to 15 people but smugglers are known to pack more than 80 on board, leading to a mounting death toll. Nearly 80 people died last year trying to cross from northern France to the UK.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper told the UK Parliament this month that a French maritime review of operational tactics was under way. "We are urging France to complete this review and implement the changes as swiftly as possible," Ms Cooper said.

French border authorities on a beach in Gravelines, France, as they prepare to fire tear gas at a group of people thought to be migrants. PA

The Interior Ministry said the UK concerns were understandable. "We are aware of the high stakes involved in interventions at sea and of the need to adapt our action doctrine," it said. A proposal for action at sea would be developed in summer, it added.

In 2021, France had refused a similar request to change tactics to a more muscular approach, made by Ms Cooper's predecessor Priti Patel. NGOs say intercepting small boats at sea is a dangerous practice that endangers the lives of migrants on board, and link the increase in the number of deaths in the process last year to police repression.

The prefect of Saint-Omer told news website InfoMigrants in December 2023 that law enforcement had been given "extremely clear instructions to never endanger the lives of migrants".

After meeting French President Emmanuel Macron in Canada this week, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer's office said migration should be a key focus at next month's summit given the deteriorating situation in the Channel.

Ahead of the summit, Mr Macron will be in Britain for a state visit, during which he will meet King Charles III.

Ties between France and Britain have improved since Mr Starmer took office last year, the neighbours brought closer by shared concerns over Russian aggression towards Ukraine and the need to re-arm Europe as US President Donald Trump plots a more isolationist position for the world's largest economy.

French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau has made the fight against illegal migration a priority. To that end, on Wednesday he announced the deployment of 4,000 police personnel in train and bus stations across France.