Small boats French coastguard condemns 'deadly' proposals

French coastguards have called for plans to intercept small boats in the Channel to be halted because of the risk to life in an intervention that came as the Home Office confirmed France was reviewing its "maritime doctrine" about the plan.

- Diane Taylor

In a letter to the French customs director general, Florian Colas, the customs union Solidaires Douanes, which includes coastguards among its members, describes the plans to intercept small boats up to 300 metres from the French shore as "a deadly doctrine, which contravenes international conventions".

It adds: "Such an inhumane, absurd and shameful doctrine risks provoking shipwrecks and deaths, for which the moral and criminal responsibility would rest entirely with the personnel responsible for carrying out the interventions."

The new questions over the viability of interceptions of dinghies in the Channel is another blow to the UK government after the Guardian revealed on Tuesday that an Iranian asylum seeker in the first group of those sent back to France under the "one in one out" deal had returned to the UK in a small boat.

Keir Starmer said yesterday that the man, who says he is a victim of modern slavery, would be "fast-tracked back out of the country".