France will start intercepting small boats in Channel following UK pressure
France has agreed to begin stopping small boats in the English Channel, following an extended period of pressure from the UK.
The change in policy comes after the British leader wrote to the French leader urging him to back the initiative and saying there currently "have no effective preventive measure" in the Channel.
French maritime police will be allowed to stop the migrant vessels at sea, but only before they've picked up their migrants, according to official confirmation.
French authorities have rarely acted to prevent the overcrowded boats departing from the shoreline because it is considered excessively high a danger to both personnel and individuals.
"It is essential that we deploy these tactics this period... We have no effective deterrent in the Channel waters."
Currently, a French naval police spokesperson states officers will start taking action at sea, with the objective of safeguarding human life.
Notably, the spokesperson ruled out the use of entanglement devices to stop boats, which had earlier been suggested as a potential method to snarl the propellers of the vessels.
This determination to take action at all is a major step forward, following a brief shift towards a stricter strategy this summer, which dropped off when the previous government official left government.
This was demonstrated in July, in the run-up to a summit between the Prime Minister and French president, when French police were witnessed wading into the sea to slash the sides of a vessel.
Now French officials will again be permitted to intercept boats before they pick up asylum-seeking passengers from the coastal areas of northern France, although it's uncertain how the small boats will be stopped.
Powerful gusts are currently postponing the start of intervention operations and the human trafficking networks will be seeking ways to adapt to evade detection, as they have frequently done in the previous instances.
UK immigration authorities and the Prime Minister's office have been contacted for response.
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