France and Britain hope migrant 'taxi boat' plan will slow record Channel crossings
PARIS (Reuters) -Early one morning this week, a dinghy motored along a vast beach in northern France, stopping every few hundred metres to pick up migrants bound for Britain. Four French police gave chase, but failed to reach the migrants before they reached water's edge.
Soon, with 70-odd people onboard, the dinghy began chugging across the sea, adding to a record-breaking number of migrants crossing the Channel this year. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer's right-wing opponents have seized on the data, reminding him he had pledged to "smash" the trafficking gangs.
France and Britain hope to unveil measures at their summit next week that will reportedly allow French police to intercept such 'taxi boats' - a new phenomenon - up to 300 metres (yards) from shore rather than only if lives are at risk as now.
Police, activists and migrants interviewed by Reuters were sceptical such a plan would work.
"I just don't see how this could ever be implemented," said Julien Soir, a police union representative in the northern city of Lille. "Getting it up and running is simply impossible."
He said police were already stretched covering 180 km (112 miles) of coastline and lack the equipment and training needed for seaborne operations. Police also fear drowning if they fall in the water with heavy equipment, or personal legal liability if migrants die or are injured during an intervention.
Angele Vettorello, a coordinator at the Utopia 56 charity in Calais, said numbers were rising despite more French police patrolling beaches, including with British-sponsored drones.
She said the proposed measures would only make a dangerous crossing - last year 73 migrants died navigating what is one of the world's busiest shipping lanes - more perilous.
If implemented, it would "lead to even more deaths ... more distress," she said.
RIGHT-WING RISE
The influx of migrants has helped Nigel Farage's Reform UK overtake Starmer's Labour Party in polls. Farage, a right-wing populist and longtime immigration hard-liner, has proposed using the Navy to intercept migrant vessels and take them back to France. Lawyers say this could only be done if France agreed.
Nearly 20,000 asylum seekers have arrived in Britain via small boats so far this year, a 50% increase compared to the same period in 2024. French and British authorities blame the spike on unusually good weather.
Peter Walsh, from Oxford University's Migration Observatory, said maritime interception may stop more migrants but would not affect long-term trends behind the migrant surge, including multiple conflicts and the allure of English-speaking Britain.
Britain also wants to negotiate a returns agreement with France, which it had before it left the European Union.
At a filthy migrant camp near Dunkirk, Reuters spoke with several migrants who were unaware of the new proposal. They said it wouldn't stop them from trying to cross.
Israrullah Lodin, 26, left Afghanistan in 2021 after his family's work with the U.S. army irked the Taliban. He had failed to cross three times; twice he was stopped by police and once his boat had problems. Lodin dreamed of working in a UK fulfilment warehouse. Nothing would stop him from getting there.
"We are not afraid to die," he said. "I have to reach my destination."
Nisarahmad Afghan, 23, had been a migrant almost all his adult life, having left his home region of Nangarhar four years ago. He had made two failed attempts to cross, both foiled by police.
"Until I succeed, I will keep trying," he said. "I've passed through many dangerous roads. I will pass this one too."
(Additional reporting by Mohammad Yunus Yawar in Kabul; Marco Trujillo, Manuel Ausloos, Abdul Saboor, Gonzalo Fuentes in Calais; Michael Holden in London; editing by Richard Lough and Philippa Fletcher)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
15 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump administration can deport Djibouti detainees to South Sudan after judge denies emergency bid to block flight
The Trump administration will be able to send eight migrants held in Djibouti for weeks to South Sudan, where they fear they will face violence, after a flurry of court activity on Friday. A federal judge in Massachusetts denied an emergency request Friday evening from the migrants' lawyers to block their deportation to the country, where they said their clients could face torture. In a brief order, United States District Judge Brian E. Murphy wrote that he interpreted a Supreme Court decision delivered a day earlier allowing the deportation to South Sudan to move forward as 'binding' on the request, which he said raised 'substantially similar claims.' The nation's highest court on Thursday had ruled in the Trump administration's favor and cleared the way to remove the eight migrants to South Sudan. Earlier Friday, the migrants were handed a brief reprieve from a federal judge in DC that kept the migrants on the ground in Djibouti, while their lawyers transferred their case to Massachusetts federal court, where earlier procedures around the group had been held. Now that Murphy has denied the emergency petition, the flight from Djibouti to South Sudan could take off around 7 p.m. ET. 'Today, law and order prevails,' Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said on X following the decision. CNN has reached out to DHS to confirm the status of the flight. The detainees' lawyers had argued they will face torture if they are sent to South Sudan by the US, and say they will be deprived of their constitutional rights. They said the Trump administration is trying to unfairly hurt them with the deportation, which they cast in court filings as 'punitive banishment' and 'severe punishment' and warn the detainees could be put at risk of being 'arbitrarily imprisoned, tortured, killed or severely harmed' if they are released in South Sudan. Judge Randolph Moss in the DC District Court heard arguments in a pair of emergency hearings Friday afternoon before saying the case should be moved to Massachusetts. 'It seems self-evident the US government can't take human beings and send them to a place where their physical well-being is at risk,' such as in South Sudan, either to punish them or to warn other possible migrants to the US of the consequences of illegal immigration, Moss said. He ordered the Trump administration not to move the migrants until 4:30 p.m. ET and told the migrants' lawyers they must move fast to try to get a judge to intervene in Massachusetts. The detainees' lawyers filed their new claims just after 4 p.m. in Massachusetts' federal district court. Attorneys for the migrants said sending them to war-torn South Sudan would be further punishment than the sentences they've already served for crimes. A lawyer argued to Moss in court that the administration's actions in this situation are unprecedented and 'unlike anything that has ever been done by the US with deportations before.' The Justice Department, however, argued that the latest ask for relief should've been filed earlier, in a different type of claim and a different court than Moss'. 'They can't justify their claim-splitting,' said Justice Department attorney Hashim Mooppan. The Justice Department lawyer also expressed frustration to the court that the detainees' legal approach appears to be an attempt to 'drag … out' their being moved out of Djibouti, and said that the US diplomatic relations could be hurt by the multiple rounds of the court fight, as it negotiates with other countries to take migrants it seeks to deport. The eight detainees in Djibouti are from countries including Myanmar, Sudan, Mexico, Vietnam, Laos and Cuba, according to court filings, but the administration since springtime has moved fast to put detainees like them and others on planes and send them to other countries, often with a history of significant safety risks and brutality. The administration also revealed in court Friday additional details on the diplomatic correspondence between the United States and South Sudan, saying that upon arrival, the migrants would be granted an immigration status in accordance with South Sudan laws and immigration procedures, and that the US did not ask for them to be detained there. Moss said on Friday he believed the lawyers for the detainees were 'doing their best to protect the lives and well-being of human beings.' He also cited a stark travel warning from the State Department cautioning Americans headed to the country. 'It does appear placing people in South Sudan does pose significant risks to their physical safety,' Moss said. Still, Moss limited how much he intervened over the US' plans. The judge explained the very short stay he issued Friday afternoon by saying he didn't believe courts should issue administrative stays that last longer than is necessary. This headline and story have been updated with additional developments.
Fox News
2 hours ago
- Fox News
Judge backs Trump admin's deportation push for 8 illegal migrants after another judge blocks it
Eight migrants were denied a request by a Massachusetts federal judge on Friday to have their deportation to South Sudan halted. Justice Department lawyers said the men were scheduled to be flown to South Sudan on Friday at 7:00 pm ET after two courts considered their emergency request on July 4, a day when courts would otherwise be closed, Reuters reported. The migrants, who are from Cuba, Laos, Mexico, Burma, Sudan and Vietnam, filed new claims on Thursday after the U.S. Supreme Court clarified that Boston federal Judge Brian Murphy couldn't require the Department of Homeland Security to hold them. Also on Friday, federal Judge Randolph Moss in Washington paused the Trump administration's efforts to deport the eight migrants to South Sudan, the latest case testing the legality of the Trump administration's push to ship illegal immigrants to third countries. Moss had briefly halted the deportation after lawyers for the migrants filed the new claims in his court and sent the case to Boston, where Murphy denied the claim. The eight men argued their deportations to South Sudan would violate the Constitution, which prohibits "cruel and unusual" punishment, Reuters reported. They have been convicted of various crimes, with four of them convicted of murder, the Department of Homeland Security has said. They were detained for six weeks on a military base in Djibouti instead of being brought back to the United States. On Thursday, the migrants filed new claims after the Supreme Court said that a federal judge in Boston could no longer require the Department of Homeland Security to hold them, Reuters reported. Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House. During Friday's hearing with Moss, a government lawyer argued that court orders halting agreed-upon deportations pose a serious problem for U.S. diplomatic relations and would make foreign countries less likely to accept transfers of migrants in the future. The case is the latest development over the legality of the Trump administration's campaign to deter immigration by shipping migrants to locations other than their countries of origin pursuant to deals with other countries, according to Reuters. "It seems to me almost self-evident that the United States government cannot take human beings and send them to circumstances in which their physical well-being is at risk simply either to punish them or send a signal to others," Moss said during the hearing.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
China imposes anti-dumping duties on European brandy as trade tensions rise
BEIJING (AP) — China on Friday imposed anti-dumping duties on European brandy, most notably cognac produced in France, as trade tensions between Beijing and United States allies continue to rise. Chinese authorities agreed to exempt some major cognac makers on condition they maintain their prices above minimum levels. The tariffs, effective on Saturday, will range from 27.7% to 34.9%, China's Commerce Ministry said. They are to be in place for five years and will not be applied retroactively. French President Emmanuel Macron said on X that the exemptions for most cognac and armagnac producers are 'a positive step towards putting an end to the dispute that was threatening our exports.' 'We will continue to support our industry to ensure that its interests are fully protected,' Macron said. The announcement came during a European visit by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi aimed at ironing out trade differences. Wang was set to visit Paris after stops in Brussels and Berlin. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said he will discuss the issue with Wang when the pair meet later Friday. The anti-dumping duties are the result of a probe China launched last year into European brandy, after the European Union undertook a probe into Chinese electric vehicles subsidies. 'The investigative authority finally ruled that the dumping of related imported brandy from the EU has existed,' read a statement by China's Commerce Ministry. 'The domestic brandy industry faces a material threat of damage, and there is a causal relationship between the dumping and the substantial damage threat.' Besides cognac, China has also launched investigations into European pork and dairy products. The brandy probe was the first and targeted mainly French makers of cognac and similar spirits such as Armagnac. China initially announced provisional tariffs of 30.6% to 39% on French cognac producer Remy Martin and other European brandies after a majority of E.U. countries approved duties on electric vehicles made in China. Exemptions include French producers Pernod Ricard, Remy Cointreau and Hennessy. In a written statement, Barrot praised the 'broad scope of exemptions' as 'a positive step for many players in the cognac and armagnac industry." He noted that 'several important points remain unresolved, in particular the exclusion of certain players from the scope of exemptions." "We remain fully committed to finding a definitive solution, based on the conditions that existed prior to the investigation," Barrot added. Wang's European tour comes ahead of a China-EU summit to be focused on trade later this month in Beijing.
