French authorities will start stopping small boats in Channel following UK pressure
France has agreed to begin stopping migrant vessels in the English Channel, following months of insistence from the United Kingdom.
This policy shift follows the British leader wrote to the French leader asking him to support the initiative and saying there presently "have no effective preventive measure" in the maritime passage.
French security forces will be allowed to intercept the migrant vessels at sea, but exclusively prior to they've picked up their migrants, according to official statements.
French authorities have infrequently intervened to stop the heavily loaded boats departing from the coastline because it is viewed as excessively high a risk to both personnel and individuals.
"It is crucial that we deploy these methods this month... We have no effective prevention in the Channel waters."
Currently, a French naval police spokesperson says officers will begin intervening at sea, with the aim of safeguarding lives.
Notably, the spokesperson excluded the use of entanglement devices to stop boats, which had earlier been reported as a possible method to snarl the propellers of the boats.
This determination to take action at all is a major advancement, coming after a short-lived shift towards a more aggressive strategy this summer, which dropped off when the previous Interior Minister left government.
This was demonstrated in July, in the run-up to a meeting between the Prime Minister and President, when French police were observed wading into the sea to damage the hulls of a boat.
Now French officials will once more be permitted to stop boats prior to they pick up asylum-seeking passengers from the coastal areas of France's north coast, however it's not clear how the small boats will be stopped.
Powerful gusts are presently postponing the start of interceptions and the human trafficking gangs will be seeking methods to adjust 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 comment.
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