France to authorise security forces to halt small boats before they cross the Channel

The French government plans to authorise interventions to halt small boats at sea before they pick up people attempting to reach the UK, following pressure from Keir Starmer.

- Rajeev Syal Home affairs editor

It is understood French security forces will target empty “taxi boats”, or large dinghies, before they pick up passengers from beaches to be taken to the UK.

According to the Paris-based newspaper Le Monde, Starmer wrote to the French president, Emmanuel Macron, urging him to back the plan and saying there was “no effective deterrent” in the Channel.

The development is the latest twist in the wrangle between the two governments over how to stop unauthorised small boat journeys. The growing number of people arriving in the UK in small boats has become a damaging political problem for Starmer’s government.

An NGO working with refugees has told the Guardian it could launch a legal challenge because the tactic could force desperate people to take more dangerous journeys.

In July, there was a flurry of French police interventions near French beaches to stop the boats - with footage recorded by the BBC of a boat being punctured in shallow water while carrying asylum seekers. But the interventions were halted in early August following objections from the French police officers’ union.