Keir Starmer announces small boats returns deal in July
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French police are refusing to intercept migrant dinghies in the water and are yet to receive any new orders from Paris, it has emerged. In another huge blow to Sir Keir Starmer’s small boats plan, senior figures condemned a lack of officers, training and equipment.
And one admitted police do not “really want to go into the water to stop people”. In a stark assessment, Marc Musiol, a UN1TE representative for border police at Calais, Dunkirk, and Coquelles, declared “there’s nothing on the horizon to suggest that we’re going to change the way we work”.
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French police have refused to intercept migrants at sea (Image: Getty)
He said: “As of today, the personnel of the general service unit here at Coquelles have not received any new intervention doctrines.
“Police, in their interventions and modus operandi on the beaches … are still intervening in the same way and there’s nothing on the horizon to suggest that we’re going to change the way we work.”
In June, the French cabinet agreed to allow officers to intercept migrant boats within 300 metres of the coast.
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The tactic is considered crucial to preventing people smugglers launching so-called "taxi-boats", where migrants wade out into the water and wait for a dinghy.
This leads to chaotic scenes as asylum seekers try to haul themselves onto already dangerously overcrowded boats.
Jean-Christophe Couvy, general secretary of UN1TE, added: “As a union member, I’m going to tell my colleagues not to go into the water.”
Mr Couvy said officers were yet to receive any instructions about intercepting small boats at sea.
He added: “We can’t ask officers to risk their lives without protection.
“I don’t want a police officer to drown because we ask him to go into the water and stop migrants.
“I don’t think officers really want to go into the water to stop people.
“It’s not part of our duties. If we do it to save people, that’s different.”
Cedric Castes, the national delegate for border police at UN1TE, also voiced fears over the plan.
He said: “We don’t want police officers to be blamed for poor instructions and poor training, because we know very well how things work. If there’s an incident, if there are deaths, police officers can be blamed.
Intercepting boats at sea is considered crucial to stopping so-called taxi boats (Image: Getty)
“I unfortunately have a lot of doubts about the dangers it represents.
“On the face of it, there’s ministerial pressure to be able to intervene at sea, but in practice, the departments haven’t necessarily found the solution to avoid tragedies.”
Home Office insiders had hoped French police would start intercepting migrant dinghies this summer.
They initially anticipated changes in May.
Home Office figures revealed French police prevented just 1,852 migrants from crossing the Channel over the last two weeks of July and the first two of August.
This was a sharp drop from 2,898 over a similar period last summer.
The French interception plans were thrown into chaos after prime minister Fran？ois Bayrou announced a vote of confidence will be held on September 8.
But fury over the budget is likely to lead to a defeat, plunging French president Emmanuel Macron into fresh political chaos.
And changing the law to intercept migrants at sea would not be a priority, it has been claimed.
A UK government source said: “The political situation in France is difficult. We still hope they will operationalise it, but it has become more difficult due to these developments.”
It comes as new figures revealed more than 180,000 have crossed the Channel since the crisis began in 2018.
Another 659 people were detected in nine boats on Bank Holiday Monday as smugglers continued to wreak havoc.
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On Sunday, 212 people were also rescued.
Home Office records show at least 28,947 have crossed this year. Some 3,511 have arrived in August alone.
And 52,189 crossed in small boats since Labour came into power in July 2024.
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