At the end of last week, the British government hailed the "toughening" of French law enforcement practices to stop migrants from reaching the United Kingdom through the English Channel. A few hours before the announcement, the BBC published a video showing French police slashing a small boat already in the water.
On Friday, July 4, the British television channel BBC published a video showing French police preventing a migrant boat, already in the water, from crossing the English Channel, on a French beach near Boulogne-sur-Mer (Pas-de-Calais),.
The footage shows dozens of migrants—including women and children—waist-deep in water, attempting to board a small boat as waves make the vessel unstable. Then, law enforcement officers, observing the scene stationed on the sand, remove their bulletproof vests and belts and rush toward the boat, Stanley knives in hand. The officers slash the boat and order the migrants to return to the beach. People can be heard screaming, some fearing they will be crushed by the weight of the other passengers as the small boat sinks.
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'Saving people in danger'
According to the Hauts-de-France authorities, on Friday at 8:30 a.m., a taxi-boat arrived to pick up passengers on the beach of Saint-Etienne-au-Mont ( in the region of Pas-de-Calais, on the French coast). The boat was already carrying 30 people "when around 50 migrants (men, women, and children) arrived on the beach," authorities said. Six gendarmes "remained to secure the passengers during the boarding, in accordance with the orders they were given."
During the boarding, "the people in the water at the rear of the 'small boat' were in immediate danger," the authorities added. "The overloaded boat was sinking, and migrants were trying to climb into the back of the boat at the risk of being caught in the propeller," the Interior Ministry also said. "The police, with water up to their knees, intervened to save the people in danger, pull the boat to the beach, and disable it," they explained.
During this operation, "no one was injured or required emergency assistance," authorities said.
The UK reacted to the French authorities' new practices to stop migrant departures approvingly. "What we saw this morning [editor's note: Friday, July 4] was an important moment," a spokesperson for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said. "We welcome the actions of French law enforcement to intervene in shallow waters, and what you have seen in recent weeks is a toughening of their approach," he added. "We are seeing new tactics being used to disrupt these boats before they begin their journey," the spokesperson continued.
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Intercepting boats at sea
The UK is pressuring France to change its policies so that police would be able to intercept taxi boats up to 300 meters offshore. These boats board migrants directly at sea to avoid being stopped by police on the shore.
Currently, according to international maritime law, once a boat is afloat, authorities are only required to conduct rescues and are not supposed to intervene to intercept migrants, in order to prevent drowning.
In April 2024, AFP journalists witnessed a scene where a police officer, knee-deep in water, plunged his knife into the rim of a boat, while a tearful migrant cursed him. The man finally left an hour later aboard another overloaded, makeshift boat.
On June 13, the French broadcaster France Info reported the violent interception of a migrant boat in the English Channel, near Gravelines. Police officers, who entered the water with shields and helmets, fired tear gas at the migrants to prevent their small boat from leaving. A British photographer at the scene saw a family with children amidst the smoke, forced to turn back to the beach. Police unions described it as an "exceptional" operation.
"Our colleagues are simply very committed, especially because a few days ago, we were criticized for allegedly letting a boat leave without doing anything," a police union official explained. French authorities are regularly accused by the UK of not doing enough to stop migrants, despite the money they receive from the UK for border enforcement.
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French-British Summit
Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who came to power a year ago and is under pressure from a rising far right, has promised to "take back control of the borders."
More than 21,000 people have crossed the Channel since January, a record for this period. This represents an increase of nearly 48 percent compared to the same period last year.
At the French-British summit, scheduled to take place from July 8 to 10, discussions will focus on migration. In addition to interceptions at sea, Paris and London are also working on a migrant exchange project. This is a "pilot" project, according to several sources, an experiment based on a "one-for-one principle."
The UK would take in certain "vulnerable" migrants, according to a French source, and in exchange would return to France people who arrived by boat. Paris would like to extend this agreement to the European Union, so that readmissions are shared between several countries.
In February, London and Paris extended the Sandhurst Treaty for another year until 2027. The treaty defines the legal framework between the two countries regarding migration issues.