French police finally agree to intercept migrant small boats in English Channel | Politics | News

It was revealed today that French police will start stopping small boats full of immigrants heading to England in the English Channel. The news comes after months of discussions with Britain over the danger of such operations.

The official document, obtained by Le Monde, was signed by the four governors responsible for administering parts of the Canal and the North Sea.

These include the beaches around Calais and Dunkirk, where thousands of migrants leave for the UK every day.

In a report published late on Thursday night, Le Monde writes: “Maritime gendarmerie will carry out operations at sea to intercept inflatable boats aiming to transport migrants to the UK.

‘The operational framework for these unprecedented interventions has been established, according to a document dated 25 November, consulted by Le Monde and signed by four governors – the maritime governor for the Channel and the North Sea and the governors of the Nord, Somme and Pas-de-Calais departments.’

The new document was at the center of negotiations between London and Paris last year, when more than 36,000 migrants crossed the Channel.

Most of them are refugees from countries such as Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Eritrea and Sudan.

Le Monde quotes a leaked letter from Keir Starmer to French President Emmanuel Macron; In this letter, the Prime Minister writes: ‘It is crucial that we implement these tactics this month’ and adds: ‘We do not have an effective deterrent in the channel.’

There are still extreme concerns about safety on a route where people regularly die by drowning or suffocating in flimsy boats.

The leaked document says: ‘The unprecedented nature and sensitivity of these operations require adaptability and flexibility’ and adds: ‘the absolute and immutable priority is the protection of human life.’

The French Maritime Gendarmerie will begin new operations, initially focusing on ports and canals.

First of all, ‘taxi boats’ will be stopped. These are relatively empty ships and smugglers enter the Channel before loading them from the beach.

During interventions, maritime police will have to apply ‘gradual and reversible measures ranging from orders to stop, to immobilizing boats, diverting and handing over persons to authorities’.

According to previous statements, nets will be used to immobilize sea taxi propellers.

Britain is paying the French nearly £500 million to prevent thousands of foreigners from reaching British shores and regularly claims it is not getting value for money.

The last Home Affairs Minister, Bruno Retailleau, approved a plan to allow maritime interventions in certain situations, including in shallow waters, but these plans now appear to have been shelved.

Mr Retailleau wanted a new French ‘maritime intervention force’ to escort small migrant boats away from England.

The radical plan will see fast patrol vehicles surround boats full of passengers who have paid thousands to people smugglers to reach the UK.

French police unions have claimed that turning their members into ‘marine police’ would be ‘extremely dangerous’.

A senior source at the Alliance, the country’s largest police union, said: ‘People don’t realize how dangerous it is to attempt an arrest at sea while forcing a boat to change course.

‘If there are eighty people, including women and children, on an overcrowded boat, it is extremely dangerous to try to stop them.’

The French Navy also opposed intervention at sea, with a senior officer saying: ‘Disasters, including drownings, could easily occur.’