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France Set To Lift Ban On Police Stopping Migrant Boats At Sea Crossing To UK Shores From 2025...
- Linda Aitken-Smith
- Mar 4
- 21 min read
The French government is set to lift a ban on stopping migrant boats at sea for the first time in an effort to reduce illegal Channel crossings.
Bruno Retailleau, the French interior minister, met Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary of Britain, on Thursday 2 February 2025.
Said that he was seeking a law change to allow migrants to be tackled out of boats in shallow water and was considering a variety of legal changes to step up enforcement against small boats.
The rule change will allow police to use their own boats for the first time to take on people-smugglers carrying migrants to the UK on overloaded vessels.
French law at the time of writing this Blog prohibits the police from tackling a migrant boat once it has entered the water, leaving officers only able to launch a rescue operation.
People-smuggling gangs have begun using “taxi boats”, which remain in the water and collect migrants from beaches in Northern France.
The tactic allows smugglers to evade capture, forcing police to conduct rescue operations rather than arrest the perpetrators.
Migrants wade into the sea where they are collected from the water by people smugglers in taxi boats
The tactic allows smugglers to evade capture by not touching the beach, forcing police to conduct rescue operations rather than arrest the perpetrators.
It has since become the most popular way for small boats to set off from France, and officials are concerned that the practice will increase the number of boats crossing when the weather improves.
The method sprang up after the UK and France blocked several rivers leading to the Channel with floating dams, to prevent small boats from accessing the sea.
The French interior minister said. “We need to rethink our approach so that we can intercept the boats”. “We must be able to intercept them within 300 metres of the coast. France have a naval service, the gendarmerie, and they must be able to intervene in shallow water"
He hoped to restore the offence of an “illegal stay” in France, which would allow the police to arrest migrants and smugglers before they attempt a crossing.
Currently, migrants who attempt to cross the Channel are only considered to have committed an offence when they launch the boat.
Authorities must intervene in shallow waters, said the French interior minister as he seeks to change law prohibiting dinghies being tackled after they launch.
Yvette Cooper and Bruno Retailleau met gendarmerie officers in Etaples-sur-Mer Credit: Leon Neal/Getty Images
Le Touquet, a coastal resort town has been plagued by migrant crossings in recent years. It was the first visit by a British home secretary to northern France since 2020.
The British home secretary and the French interior minister flew over the coastline in a French coastguard plane fitted with thermal imaging technology designed to catch migrants in the sand dunes before they leave the beach.
They also agreed to relocate £7million of funding provided to France as part of the Sandhurst Treaty, an agreement signed under the Conservatives.
The Measures Include
A new unit of 12 detectives, stationed in Dunkirk, will use intelligence from Britain and France to hunt for people-smugglers operating in the area. The new group of specialist enforcement officers, modelled on a taskforce sent to the beaches to reduce crossings during the Paris Olympics.
The Home Office said the team would have dual powers to investigate and prosecute criminal gangs, which officials said would allow faster convictions.
And more drone operators to find migrants and smugglers from the air.
Mr Retailleau and his French government colleagues are facing opposition from the public over the number of migrants travelling through the north of the country.
National Rally, the hard-right populist party, has its highest levels of support in the north of France, including the Pas-de-Calais region, where most small boats leave the beaches.
Members of the gendarmerie fly a surveillance aircraft fitted with thermal imaging technology designed to catch migrants before they leave the beach Credit: Leon Neal/Getty Images
The interior minister has also promised to provide funding to local farmers whose property has been damaged by migrants if they incur costs that are not covered by insurance.
Criminal smuggler gangs are running an appalling and dangerous trade in people, undermining UK and French border security, causing huge damage and putting lives at risk. The gangs operate across borders, so law enforcement needs to operate across borders, too.
Mr Retailleau, who was previously critical of the UK Government for not clamping down on “pull factors” for migrants trying to reach Britain, said on Thursday that he believed the Labour administration was “taking back control”.
The British Citizens would love to see the Labour administration “taking back control of the Mass Invasion Of Illegal Migrants that are coming across from France onto British shores, with the help of the French Government, as this would be beneficial to the economy and security of both our Countries.
They would also love to see the Government Deport all the Migrants who came across in Boats that they paid the Smuggling Gangs to come to Britain illegally and who disposed of their I.D and mobile phones so they could get into Britain.
Because the difference between a refugee and a migrant is...
A migrant is considered to be a person who has left their home by choice and in search of a better opportunity. A migrant is not considered a refugee or asylum seeker.
Because conflict or persecution did not force them from home. And they came across illegally.
A refugee is someone who has been forced to flee conflict or persecution and has crossed an international border to seek safety. They cannot return to their country without risking their life or freedoms. They would also have documented proof of where they came from, their age, etc and would also have their Family with them also and would have stopped to get Refuge at a safe country near their own Country as they would have had some possessions with them and not a lot of money.
Illegal Migrants paid Traffickers to come across in a Boat to Britain and were then put into 5-star Hotels by our Government. Refugees would have been happy they had a roof over their heads and were in a safe place, even if it was in a barracks
Refugees would also go back to their Country of origin when their Country was safe to go back to, as they would only be here for Refuge as they would see their Country as their Home.
.An example would be Ukrainians who came to Britain and other Countries because of the war with Russia.
The most simple way to stop the boats is to stop the freebies ( “pull factors”) gifted to every Illegal Migrant coming to Britain in Boats.
Stop all the free Hotel accommodation, Holiday Inns... Accommodation shouldn't be to hotel standard.
No clothes, no money at all (spends), mobile phones or Televisions, etc
No entitlement to legal support as they arrived illegally.
They won't bother crossing the Channel if we stop giving them everything.
Stop picking people up, wrapping them in blankets and generally looking after them. You arrive wet and cold, you stay wet and cold. Stop spending thousands every day on new clothes.
And if the French Government agreed to **Tow Back & stepped up enforcement against small boats by finally lifting the ban on police stopping migrant boats at sea and, stopped them getting into the Boats.
The following would stop. And they would not gain any benefit from the current Situation With Migrants.
It's not only the smugglers that make money from this situation. We have our own homegrown UK traffickers here. It's literally become a multi-billion pound industry, from "Charities", hoteliers / private landlords, lawyers, interpreters, even driving lessons, Serco, laundry companies, food companies, security companies also make a lot of money from this the list is endless of the people making money out of this business. Why WOULD they want to stop it? So the British Public can't see the gravy train being derailed completely any time soon.
Also, don't forget terrorist organisations. It is also impossible to imagine that at least a small portion of what must now amount to billions of dollars paid to people smugglers doesn't end up in the hands of Islamic terrorists.
Solictors provide help free for migrants paid for out of our taxes, if we End legal aid for such claims and these "Solicitors" will disappear very quickly and go back to ambulance chasing.
The answer is to make life so bleak here that Migrants don’t want to come here illegally.
We could do the following - Process ALL Illegal Migrants Who are currently in Hotels, etc at taxpayers' expense -
Round up those already here and also those who arrive on a Rubber Boat should be arrested and ship them to for example**: and place in a detention centre
**The Ascension Island or an empty Island that Britain owns with the same type of buildings which France used for Migrants with overhead lights and surveillance cameras as reception centres for migrants for processing, and make sure it is rigorous and not the current let-them-all-in policy. It worked for Australia.
Put Migrants in 200 locked Single Rooms in a building on 2 floors. Then place them in a Large building as a Detention Centre and provide blankets for sleeping. Provide Soup kitchens & Water till they have been processed and then deported. Then rinse and repeat and empty the next hotels and bring to the empty Processing Centre & Detention Centre. Or we could do the same set-up and process near the beach where they came into the Country.
Similar to their prisons at home: it’s what the word “illegal” means. If we still don't know where they come from after processing (Fingerprinting & Photos) because they are withholding their true identity, then we can do one of the following (A or B). Or if they have told us their true identity and County of Origin (C).
Then immediately, the Government could do one or all of the following 3 choices below....
A: We could send the Migrants to guard against the Russians or wherever. That will deter them from leaving their safe homelands in Central and South Asia.
And that would help to pay for all the Billions we have paid out to look after all the Migrants we put up in Hotels so far...
It would stop it within weeks, if not days. No one is going to pay smugglers if they think they could end up in the Ukraine fighting Russians within days of being intercepted.
These people are committing an offence by illegally coming to the UK.
Fit men of fighting age shouldn't be hanging around our towns and cities while Starmer is wanting to send our own troops to fight in Ukraine against the Russians.
It’s not difficult
(B): Release more prisoners in UK jails, like the woman serving nearly 3 years for saying nasty things about illegals and jail the illegals for entering the country illegally, which is a crime. Let out 15,000 low-risk tagged UK national prisoners early who aren't a threat to British citizens early and lock up the illegal immigrants who have commited crimes in this Country. (Including Children of Asylum Seekers who were given Asylum). Then return them to the Country of origin.
(C): As soon as we have enough Migrants to be deported, they get a free flight on a Military Airplane 100+ at a time. Or take them back to France on *Boats, and they can help us to return them to their Country of Origin.
It's clearly too difficult for Labour or the Tories
The British Government could have returned them to France as the French Government were paid to stop the Migrants getting into the boats the Smuggling Gangs provided to go to the UK but they didn't, as they didn't tell the British Government ...the French continued to take our money but couldn't and still can't legally do anything to stop anyone yet, but if they set legal processes in motion and lift the ban, then stepped up enforcement against small boats using the billions we have given the French. With no extra money been sent to France.
Many of the Legal British Citizens would love the Government to do one of the 3 choices above.
Smuggling Gangs Are Now Using “taxi boats”
"People smuggling gangs have begun using “taxi boats”, which remain in the water and collect migrants from beaches in Northern France, without setting foot on land.".... So the smugglers understanding the stupid laws, can appear and simply approach the shore and the people wade out in shallow water and get in the boat and as the boat doesn't touch the shore the law says the police can't act. Who was it who said the law is an ass?
The French police should simply deal a few harsh blows and shoot at the boats while they contain just the smugglers. Ask yourself who are the fools here.
With modern technology, it is very easy to puncture a boat whilst in shallow waters, rendering it unusable. It can be done at a distance, too. Who cares if the smugglers get shot? They're smugglers.
The French Police would just be protecting the French Borders and doing what the English Government paid them to do. Stop the Migrants from getting in the Boats, and they would also be stopping the Traffickers.
Stop the free hotels, food and clothes... and they won't bother crossing the Channel
The government could do this, but they won't, which means they want them here no other explanation.
When we have U.K. government promising these unidentified and some dangerous individuals a free home, medical care, dentistry, cash, welfare benefits of every kind going, all their bills paid…… they are not going to stop coming here unless the UK Government gets tough with the right people by making any necessary changes to the law or membership of organisations such as ECHR if needed even if reluctantly. Problem solved.
This Mass Migration can't go on. Most people are in favour of human rights but it cannot be the case that individuals can pick and choose which country they want to live in regardless of any contribution they may make and especially whey they are in many cases passing through 'safe' countries such as Turkey, Germany, France etc. before they even get near The Channel
****Also the Government should make it clear via social media and international News that any illegal migrant entering the UK will be
A. Detained, B. Deported and C. Banned for life from entering the UK
At least 13 UK laws protect human rights, not including ECHR. That is the bug issue: At least 50 Tory MPs would oppose the repeal of these Acts. ECHR should be ignored when a country's security is at risk.
The problem is that the UK is being exploited by, basically, economic migrants backed up by human rights lawyers and criminal gangs.
Genuine refugees could be helped by their neighbouring Countries, and then when safe to do so, they could go back to their Country of Origin without going through Countries and paying smugglers to come over to the UK in a boat and possibly lose their lives in the Sea.
The French Don't Want Mass Migration Of Illegal Migrants Crossing France & Camping in Calais
They don’t want the migrants crossing France and camping in Calais, the French have massively missed a trick here.
Just tow them straight back (See above **Tow Back)
So if the French Government agreed that we could just tow them straight back if they did try to get to the UK and they never landed in the UK, it would stop this immediately, and most of the migrants would never even go to France in the first place.
It would have helped them as well as us. And it could help both Countries and also all the Countries that they pass through. Also, most of the UK and French People have been saying this for years.
France wouldn't have hundreds of illegals littering their beaches if they also did the following...
It is in the French interest to stop the boats;
If they stop the boats, they won’t have hundreds of migrants around Calais causing problems. They’re not just around Calais, they’re up and down the coast.
They should never have closed their camp down; then, at least, they would have been confined in one area.
France should stop all the migrants on their beaches and get rid of them solving their & our problem with migrants.
It would clear their migrant camps for good, and we wouldn't end up with all these migrants.
Let's see how this pans out. There will be some kind of loophole going on.
Instead of the PM and his entourage going on a Trans Atlantic jolly, wasting time and taxpayer money in an utterly futile grandstanding exercise to America.
Energies would be far more usefully deployed leveraging the EU, currently bewailing the inadequacy of its defense capability against Putin.
A golden opportunity is being squandered to say to the Brussels bureaucrats, 'Sorry EU - you want the UK to cooperate with Europe in providing our nuclear deterrent, YOU get real and EFFECTIVELY CURB YOUR MIGRANT PROBLEM, currently spilling over and inflicting OUR UK SHORES! It is NOT the UK's problem, it is YOUR problem! DEAL WITH IT'!!
I’d like to think this signalled real intent. But I listened to a report from an immigrant stopover village in France, where the inhabitants said they didn’t mind the migrants too much as they were only passing through on their way to the UK - it would be different if they were staying in France.
France wouldn't have hundreds of illegals littering their beaches... if they did the following-
The French should also start to protect their borders in the south and start ejecting those who have arrived back to their home countries. This could be stopped if laws were in place. There is no shame in a country protecting its borders, there are clear rules for genuine asylum seekers - everyone on these boats is an economic migrant and is breaking the law by their method of arrival.. Zero tolerance will stop the boats.
The French Government were more interested post-2016 in punishing British citizens for still believing in nation-state democracy.
But now that Labour look set for all intents and purposes, to take us back in, hey presto, the French can suddenly do more, which is what a lot of the British Public are currently thinking: that Starmer is trying to put us back in the EU again.
If we stopped treating them like guests
Perhaps if we stopped treating them like guests instead of the criminals that they really are, there may be some reduction in numbers. Nearly 50,000 in the last couple of years. If just 1% of these undocumented criminals are dangerous or terrorists, that equates to potentially 500 serious crimes or terror incidents.
They should be turfed out upon arrival as they have already broken the law, and most of them have left a safe country and also passed through safe Countries to get to the UK.
If they are escaping war and persecution, it is strange that there are no women.
Unless they are all gay males?
**Or they are coming across to try and get asylum and then are aiming to bring all their family over later.
Or they are looking for women in the UK they can impregnate, then claim indefinite leave to remain because their child needs them for a good upbringing.
We need to copy the USA & remove Illegal Migrants
Trump In America has been Less than 4 weeks in office and illegal immigration has dropped sharply...
Politics Feb 22, 2025, 2:28 PM EST
This fact check originally appeared on PolitiFact.
One month since President Donald Trump was sworn in as president, the White House is touting the administration’s successes, including a sharp drop in illegal immigration.
Starmer. Almost 8 months in office and over 25,000 additional illegal immigrants have arrived in the U.K.
The day an Islamic Government is elected gets closer every time a boat full of illegals arrives.
It's quite easy to stop them before they reach the French border, rendering them someone else's problem.
The issue is political will on the part of all the European nations, which is sadly lacking.
There must be cooperation as without it, as everyone can see, a wider Europe are at great risk of toppling the sinking ship.
This can be rectified, make no mistake, but it will take political will and solid effort from everyone. Will they do it? It remains to be seen.
If Any Migrants manage to come over from France
We could copy the People smuggling gangs who have begun using “taxi boats, which remain in the water and collect migrants from beaches in Northern France, without setting foot on land" and do the same if they manage to get near our waters. And we can also...
Stop housing them in hotels - they’re illegals. Internment camps on the beaches guarded by dogs would do. (They don’t like dogs.)
Soup kitchens and barracks,
No benefits.
No access to towns.
No visas or Citizenship are available.
No refugee charities or human rights lawyers allowed.
Do it like Trump does. And turn an economic screw or two to make originating countries take them back.
The British government should be employing some "taxi boats" to transfer the 100s of 1000s of illegal migrants back across the Channel to France as they did not keep to their side of the bargain to stop the Migrants coming to the UK. When we were paying them before, so if the French Government agreed that we could just tow them straight back if they did try to get to the UK and they never landed in the UK, it would stop this immediately, and most of the migrants would never even go to France in the first place.
Once again, the headline is not justified by the story
To say 'French finally lift ban' clearly implies something has already happened.
But in the first paragraph, it downgrades to the French being 'set' to lift the ban, meaning it hasn't happened yet.
And then we find that a French minister is merely 'seeking' to lift the ban, with no guarantee it will happen.
French finally lift ban on police stopping migrant boats at sea
We haven't seen any evidence yet as the British Citizens still feel like we are been invaded and that billions are been spent on looking after Migrants, which could have been spent on refurbishing empty homes to house British Citizens who have spent years on housing waiting lists with their families living in cramped hotels, etc. Or our NHS Hospitals upgraded and more nurses and doctors trained... All we are seeing every day is our Country and our British Culture being destroyed. The crime rate has increased, and we, our Families, are not safe on what were once quiet streets... **So if they agreed that we could just tow them straight back if they did try to get to the UK and they never landed in the UK, it would stop this immediately and also help us to return the Migrants who have come over here illegally in the last few years as this would send a clear message to the Traffickers and the Migrants.
The article I read clearly says the French interior minister is “seeking a law change to allow migrants to be tackled out of boats in shallow water.” I would suggest there is quite a big gap ( and the potential for further large payments from the British) between “ seeking “ and actually lifting the ban.
If French politics is anything like ours, there may be little connection between what a minister 'calls for' and what the courts eventually permit.
The conclusion is that the British people whose lives have been affected feel this was possible all along and that the French and the British Governments just chose not to work together and stop the Mass Migration.
And that our Prime Minister elected in July 2024, ensured illegal immigrants received Free Accommodation in Hotels... plus other extras at the expenseof British Taxpayers with some been fast tracked and given Asylum and Free Housing and welfare benefits the same as UK Citizens, because it was easier than deporting anyone who crossed our border illegally by boat.
Only a small % that have been given Asylum are working in Legal jobs and are paying taxes.
He, more than anyone, is responsible for this Mass Invasion.
I think a UK Citizen who has lost their job will find it considerably harder to get benefits or a Home. And they have paid taxes than an illegal immigrant.
It's forbidden under current law? For the French Police to do anything when the migrants are in the water, migrants plus associations are filming, ready to blame gendarmes or police if a migrant gets drowned. The migrants know it and throw a kid or a small migrant in the sea as bait. I have been told this after I talked to a member of the public who has family who work in France.
If you are driving a dinghy and in a French harbour
The harbour police are perfectly entitled to stop you and ask if you’ve got the right paperwork, and if you haven’t, they can even confiscate the boat. So where did this nonsense law come from?
"French law currently prohibits police from tackling a migrant boat once it has entered the water" Why?? Is this a French ploy to encourage them?
So the French have continued to take our money but couldn't and still can't legally do anything to stop anyone? Perhaps we should have made it illegal to pay the EU any money because they are all crooks? Oh wait, that's why we voted for Brexit !! If they don't stop the laws stopping them from getting in the boats and they continue to come to the UK, we should demand the money we have paid to France back in Full as they won't have kept to their side of the bargain. Or charge them for the Expense (Billions) it has cost us to look after the Migrants.
I would like to think this signalled real intent - But I listened to a report from an immigrant stopover village in France, where the inhabitants said they didn’t mind the migrants too much as they were only passing through on their way to the UK - it would be different if they were staying in France.
The Headlines in the Papers-French Finally - lift ban on police stopping migrant boats at sea
No, they haven’t yet. The article clearly says the French interior minister is “seeking a law change to allow migrants to be tackled out of boats in shallow water.” I would suggest there is quite a big gap ( and the potential for further large payments from the British) between “ seeking “ and actually lifting the ban.
*Also, when Rishi was lying to us, and Starmer continued to spend hundreds of millions supposedly bribing the French to stop the boats, knowing they had this idiotic ban. This shows he was purely virtue-signaling with no true intent to stop the boats. The Rwanda deal, without getting the UK out of the ECHR and reforming the Equal Rights Act, meant the said deal in legal terms was as sound as Swiss cheese.
The French have also broken international maritime law for years...
By allowing unsuitably overloaded, non-seaworthy boats to set off without the police going into the water to stop them.
We should have taken them to court for aiding and abetting these unsafe passages, but we were soft instead we gave them half a billion... to pretend to be trying to stop them.
To date, the French Government instruct their police not to get involved with migrants because, if they do, then the French State will have a responsibility for them. So the "hands-off" approach to date has been because the French State has not wanted to assume responsibility for the welfare of migrants - hence the existence of the migrant camps.
They could do what we should do. Put them in detention camps pending deportation. They could also demand EU control it’s external borders or else they will leave Schengen and impose their own border controls.
What else have the French been promised?
The British Citizens are wondering why the French let the Migrants come across to Britain after letting them pay Billions for the French to stop them, knowing that they had a ban in place, which meant they couldn't stop them at all. And why they didn't refuse them entry to France and just turn them around.
So, why now have the French suddenly decided to say they are going to lift the ban on tackling the Migrants at Sea?
And the British Citizens will also be wondering what Starmer is offering in return. Cameron, May, Johnson and Sunak gave them money, which produced nothing.
That Starmer must be surrendering something... Maybe fishing??
Hopefully, they will make the law retrospective so the illegal migrants can be returned to France.
Was this a photo op for Yvette and the French Macron??
More smoke and mirrors I imagine.
Mainly a big fat lie to try and fool the UK public.
And they will also be wondering when all the pull factors will be removed and an automatic BAN on ever attaining U.K. citizenship along with immediate deportation for all trying to enter illegally will be implemented as a permanent law…... or NOTHING will change for the better.
Let word get out that the gravy train has stopped, and so will the boats. We have got to be so totally unwelcoming that they stop coming, and the message gets back.
If the French Government don't do the following:
Step up enforcement against small boats by finally lifting the ban on police stopping migrant boats at sea and stopping them getting into the Boats.
Then we should deduct an amount to cover the cost of a hotel room and all the other expenses for every migrant that arrives here from the Billions we are paying the French Government.
Maybe if we revoked EU fishing rights until the crossings went to zero, we would make some progress.
If the British Government don't do the following, then this means they want them there is no other explanation.
Do it like Trump does. And turn an economic screw or two to make originating countries take them back.
**So if they arranged with France that we could just tow them straight back if they did try to get to the UK and they never landed in the UK, it would stop this immediately. It will also help us to return the Migrants who have come over here illegally in the last few years as this would send a clear message to the Traffickers and the Migrants.
Make it clear via social media and international News that any illegal migrant entering the UK will be
A. Detained, B. Deported and C. Banned for life from entering the UK
Only REFORM has shown the intent to radically reform immigration law and enforce deportation, with Labour and Lib Dems being even worse to date than the Tories on the migration issue and Net Zero.
If – and it's a BIG IF – this stops the small boats, then you can be sure that Labour will claim all the credit.
We need to stop the reasons why they come here. Absolutely, no one coming here illegally should ever have the right to claim citizenship.
Stop all benefits for illegal and legal migrants, despite the Prime Minister being the one who campaigned for them in the past.
If people wish to come here legally to work, then they do not require government help. Brits abroad do not get benefits, so why should foreigners here fairs,fair?
British Citizens would have no problem with people travelling for work, but a work visa should not allow you to get benefits, housing, etc, nor give you the right to stay here indefinitely. Only full legal citizenship should give you rights, including legal aid, etc. It should be done through legal channels, not illegally coming in boats and trying to invade our shores.
In 2024, the UK's population grew by 455,000, reaching 69 million—an increase of 455,000 from 2023. Of this total growth, 417,000 came from net migration, meaning that only 38,000 in population increase was from the UK's birth rate. Nearly 90% of the UK's annual population increase is attributed to immigration.
The British Public deserves better!
“That is why our joint work with France is so important, and we are strengthening our cooperation with new specialist enforcement teams to go after these dangerous gangs.”
The Ascension Island
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France Set To Lift Ban On Police Stopping Migrant Boats At Sea Crossing To UK Shores From 2025...
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