On the night of March 30 to March 31, a barrage of floating buoys installed in France's Canche River – which flows into the English Channel – was "deliberately damaged," according to Montreuil official Isabelle Fradin-Thirode. The line of buoys, which criss-cross the river from one side to the other, was cut using a grinder-type machine, France 3 reported.

Authorities implemented the installation last summer to counter boats carrying irregular migrants attempting to cross the English Channel by avoiding controls along France's coastline.

Authorities suspect migrant smugglers are behind the destruction of the barrage.

"They cut it up to get around this… because the river was a starting point" for small boats to England, Mathilde Potel, a local official in charge of combating irregular migration, told InfoMigrants.

"Attempts at destruction by smugglers demonstrate that these roadblocks are an obstacle to the movement of migrants," the office of the Pas-de-Calais prefecture told InfoMigrants.

Buoy barrages discourage migrant crossings, authorities say

Between January and August 2023, "22 incidents were recorded on the Canche river, with an average of 46 migrants on each boat," the prefecture said in August. Since its installation, the authorities noted "a decline in attempted crossings" in this area, Potel said. No more boats have set sail from this waterway.

Northern France has two other similar installations – one in Authie near the port of Madelon set up in January, and another in the Canal des Dunes close to Dunkirk set up in 2021.

The installations are intended to act as roadblocks to smugglers and are monitored by drones.

"By prohibiting access to certain spots [thanks to the barrage], we are strengthening [our surveillance] on other [smuggler] departure points. We avoid putting ground and air forces across every sector," Potel said. 

Local authorities believe deploying such tactics has been effective in stemming irregular migrants from accessing the English Channel on small, unstable boats. But for Pierre Roques from the Auberge des Migrants organization, the method doesn't address the root of migration.

"It’s not a line of buoys that will prevent people from attempting to cross" the Channel, Roques told InfoMigrants. They "can go 200 meters further, that won’t change anything," he added.

Smugglers opt for other channels

To get around the blockades, smugglers are now using other channels. In recent months, several departures have been recorded at the Aa canal. In the span of a few weeks, there have been around ten launches from this river.

Fleur Germain, coordinator of the Utopia 56 organization in Calais, says she increasingly receives distress calls via the association's emergency telephone line from people in difficulty in Aa. "This was not at all the case before," she said.

Humanitarian workers are also warning that the installation of such barrages is prompting migrants to take more risks. In March, a 27-year-old Syrian and a seven-year-old Iraqi girl drowned in the Aa canal while trying to board a makeshift boat.

Since the start of the year, NGOs have recorded 11 deaths at sea on the route to England.

"Obviously, [the barrages] are more about communication than anything else," thinks Roques. Germain agrees that they don’t "reduce departures at all."

In the first quarter of this year, 5,373 people set sail from the French coast, compared to 3,793 in the same period of 2023, according to an AFP count based on official British data. This marks an increase of 41.7%.

This article was originally written in French.