It’s published
The UK has told France that Interior Secretary Yvette Cooper said it is pushing France to change the intersection of small boats.
Her comments in the House on Monday came after more than 1,100 migrants arrived in the UK on Saturday.
Cooper faces criticism from opposition politicians. He says criminals are exploiting loopholes in French laws that prevent authorities from intervening if immigrants are floating.
“The French prevention rate for the land is less than 40%,” said Conservative MP Chris Philp, secretary at Shadow Home.
“The French don’t stop these boats at sea, as does the Belgians,” Philps wrote in X.
Cooper said the UK government urged French authorities to allow police to intervene when migrants are in shallow waters.
“The French Minister of Home Affairs and the French Cabinet agree that the rules need to be changed at the moment,” Cooper told the House.
“The French Maritime Review looks at what new operational tactics they will use. We are urging France to complete this review and implement the changes as quickly as possible,” she added.
The British Secretary of the Interior confirmed that she was in contact with her French counterpart. “There’s more debate going on this week,” she said.
In February, French Home Minister Bruno Leciro said he intends to amend French law to allow police to intervene within 300 meters of the coastline.
Currently, authorities can only act on the coastline, unless they need to intervene to rescue migrants.
The sea prefecture will “take over” once immigrants enter the water, Sliman Hamiji, one of France’s largest police union, told TF1 Information.
Philp urged the UK government to adopt a more strict stance if this were not changed.
He suggested that the recent deal providing access to EU fishing vessels to British waters by 2038 should be stopped “unless the French agree to stop those small boats at sea.”
In response, Cooper clashed with Philp, who served as immigration minister in the previous conservative government.
“We will not take lessons from the former immigration minister who has raised the intersection of legal immigrants’ high notes and small boats more than ten times with his watch,” she said.
