UK pressures France to crack down on small boat crossings

Opposition politicians in Britain say that smugglers are exploiting a French law that bars police from acting once migrants are in the water.

The UK is pressing France to change how it polices small boat crossings, British Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has said. Her comment in the House of Commons on Monday came after more than 1,100 migrants reached the UK on Saturday — the highest number to have crossed the English Channel in a single day this year. Cooper has faced criticism from opposition politicians, who say that criminal gangs are exploiting a loophole in French law that prevents the authorities there from intervening once migrants are afloat. Conservative MP Chris Philp, who is the shadow home secretary, said the "French prevention rate on land is lamentably under 40%". "The French are not stopping these boats at sea, as the Belgians do," Philps wrote on X. Cooper said the UK government has urged the French authorities to allow police to intervene when migrants are in shallow waters. "The French interior minister and the French cabinet have now agreed their rules need to change," Cooper said in the House of Commons. "A French maritime review is looking at what new operational tactics they will use, and we are urging France to complete this review and implement the changes as swiftly as possible," she added.The British home secretary confirmed that she was in communication with her French counterpart. "There are further discussions underway this week," she said. In February, French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said he intended to amend French law to allow police to intervene within 300 metres of the coastline. Currently, authorities can only act on the shoreline, unless they are required to intervene to rescue migrants. The maritime prefecture "takes over" once migrants are in water, Sliman Hamzi, a representative of one of France's largest police unions, told TF1 Info. Philp has urged the UK government to adopt a tougher stance if this does not change. A recent deal giving EU fishing vessels access to UK waters until 2038 should be suspended unless "the French agree to stop those small boats at sea", he suggested. In response, Cooper hit out at Philp, who served as an immigration minister in the previous Conservative government. "We won't take lessons from a former immigration minister who let legal migration treble and small boat crossings soar more than tenfold on his watch," she said.