The British government welcomed a “Hardening” In the practices of the French police to intercept migrants boarding boats in the north of France to reach England.
Images broadcast on Friday on the BBC, shot on a beach, show members of the French police go to shallow water to a pneumatic boat with many migrants on board, including children, and die with cutter.
“What we saw this morning was an important momentreacted a spokesperson for the British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. We salute the action of the French police forces to intervene in shallow waters, and what you have seen in recent weeks is a hardening of their approach. “We see new tactics used to disturb these boats before they start their trip”continued the spokesperson. “With all the other levers than the active government, we believe that it can have a major impact to end the tactics used by these gangs” From smugglers, he added.
According to the regional prefecture of Hauts-de-France, Friday at 8:30 am, a taxi-boat came to take passengers on the beach of Saint-Etienne-au-Mont (Pas-de-Calais, on the French coast). The boat was already carrying thirty people “When around fifty migrants (men, women and children) appeared on the beach”she said. Six soldiers “Remained in security during boarding, in application of orders”.
When boarding, “The people located in the back at the back of the Small Boat ran an immediate danger”which led the gendarmes to intervene in order to avoid a “Risk taking to passengers of a very fragile evidencecontinued the prefecture. No one has been injured or required care by help. »»
Pressure
In addition to this boat, on the night of Thursday to Friday, then during the day, the maritime prefecture of the Channel and the North Sea specified that 149 migrants trying to join England were rescued, including 81 on the same boat off Calais.
The United Kingdom puts pressure on France so that it modifies the “Doctrine” intervention by police and gendarmes at sea in order to be able to intercept up to 300 meters from the ribs the taxi-boats. The latter carry migrants directly into the sea to avoid controls on the beaches.
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In accordance with international sea law, once a boat navigates, the authorities must only be rescue and are not supposed to intervene to intercept migrants, in order to avoid drowning.
In April 2024, journalists from the France-Presse agency (AFP) had already witnessed a scene where a police officer, with water to the knees, had planted his knife in the sausage of a boat, under the swear on a migrant in tears. The latter had finally left an hour later aboard another overloaded makeshift boat.
The Labor Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who came to power a year ago and under pressure from the far right, promised “Regain control of borders”.
But more than 20,500 people crossed the Channel over the first six months of the year, a record; This represents an increase of almost 48 % compared to the same period of 2024. An annual record had been reached in 2022 with 45,774 arrivals of migrants.
Source: Lemonde