French authorities to begin stopping migrant vessels in Channel following UK pressure
France has agreed to start intercepting small boats in the English Channel, following an extended period of insistence from the UK.
The change in policy comes after the Prime Minister wrote to the French leader asking him to back the plan and saying there currently "have no effective preventive measure" in the maritime passage.
French security forces will be allowed to stop the migrant vessels at sea, but exclusively prior to they've collected their migrants, according to authoritative statements.
French police have rarely intervened to prevent the heavily loaded boats departing from the shoreline because it is viewed as too great a risk to both officers and civilians.
"It is crucial that we implement these tactics this period... We have zero effective deterrent in the Channel waters."
Now, a French maritime police spokesperson says officers will begin taking action at sea, with the objective of safeguarding lives.
Notably, the official ruled out the use of entanglement devices to intercept boats, which had previously been reported as a possible technique to snarl the engines of the vessels.
This determination to intervene at all is a major advancement, following a brief change towards a stricter strategy this summer, which dropped off when the previous Interior Minister left office.
That was highlighted in July, preceding a meeting between the Prime Minister and President, when French police were observed walking into the sea to slash the hulls of a vessel.
Now French authorities will again be permitted to stop boats before they pick up asylum-seeking individuals from the beaches of France's north coast, although it's uncertain how the small boats will be stopped.
Powerful gusts are presently delaying the start of intervention operations and the human trafficking networks will be seeking methods 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 approached for response.
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