French authorities will start stopping small boats in English Channel after UK pressure
French officials have consented to start stopping migrant vessels in the Channel, after months of insistence from the UK.
The change in policy comes after the British leader sent a letter to the President urging him to back the initiative and saying there presently "have no effective deterrent" in the maritime passage.
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 statements.
French police have infrequently acted to prevent the overcrowded boats departing from the shoreline because it is viewed as excessively high a risk to both personnel and civilians.
"It is crucial that we implement these methods this month... We have no effective prevention in the Channel waters."
Now, a French naval police representative says personnel will start intervening at sea, with the aim of safeguarding lives.
Significantly, the official excluded the use of entanglement devices to stop boats, which had previously been reported as a possible method to snarl the engines of the boats.
This determination to intervene at all is a significant step forward, following a short-lived shift towards a stricter strategy this summer, which ceased when the former government official left office.
That was highlighted in July, in the run-up to a summit between the Prime Minister and French president, when authorities were witnessed walking into the sea to slash the hulls of a vessel.
Now French authorities will once more be allowed to stop boats before they pick up asylum-seeking passengers from the beaches of France's north coast, however it's not clear how the small boats will be prevented.
Powerful gusts are presently postponing the start of intervention operations and the people-smuggling gangs will be looking for methods to adjust to evade interception, as they have frequently done in the previous instances.
The Home Office and the Prime Minister's office have been approached for response.
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