logo
France's reported new tactic to stop small boats

France's reported new tactic to stop small boats

Independent04-07-2025
French police have reportedly begun slashing small boats with knives in shallow waters off the French coast to deter Channel crossings.
Downing Street and the home secretary have welcomed these new tactics, stating they mark a "significant moment" and will have a "major impact" on smuggling gangs.
The home secretary called for the prosecution of all individuals arriving in the UK on a small boat if a child has died during the crossing, suggesting that even boarding an overcrowded vessel could lead to charges.
These developments follow a record number of Channel crossings in small boats during the first six months of this year.
Charity Project Play warns that border securitisation policies are making conditions "more dangerous" for children, noting that French police interventions in shallow waters are not new and are increasing.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

France, Germany, UK willing to reinstate sanctions on Iran
France, Germany, UK willing to reinstate sanctions on Iran

Reuters

time2 hours ago

  • Reuters

France, Germany, UK willing to reinstate sanctions on Iran

PARIS, Aug 13 (Reuters) - France, Germany and Britain have written to the United Nations to say they are ready to reinstate sanctions on Iran if it does not return to negotiations with the international community over its nuclear programme. The foreign ministers of the so-called E3 group wrote to the U.N. on Tuesday to raise the possibility of "snapback" sanctions unless Iran takes action, according to a letter shared by the French foreign ministry. The letter was first reported by the Financial Times and France's Le Monde newspaper. "We have made it clear that if Iran is not willing to reach a diplomatic solution before the end of August 2025, or does not seize the opportunity of an extension, E3 are prepared to trigger the snapback mechanism," the ministers said in the letter. They added that they had offered Iran a limited expansion to allow for direct negotiations between the United States and Iran, but that the offer had remained unanswered by Iran so far. The three European countries, along with China and Russia, are the remaining parties to a 2015 nuclear deal reached with Iran - from which the United States withdrew in 2018 - that lifted sanctions on the Middle Eastern country in return for restrictions on its nuclear programme. The E3's warning comes after "serious, frank and detailed" talks with Iran in Istanbul last month, the first face-to-face meeting since Israeli and U.S. strikes on the country's nuclear sites in June. Iranian lawmaker Manouchehr Mottaki, who served as foreign minister from 2005 to 2010, said Iran's parliament "has its finger on the trigger to withdraw from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)" if international sanctions were reimposed after any E3 invocation of the snapback mechanism. Mottaki told Iran's semi-official Defa Press that parliament would approve a bill to withdraw from the 2015 nuclear deal within 24 hours if the E3 invoked the snapback mechanism. During its 12-day war with Israel in June, Tehran said its lawmakers were preparing a bill that could push it towards exiting the treaty, ratified by Tehran in 1970. The treaty guarantees countries the right to pursue civilian nuclear power in return for requiring them to forego atomic weapons and cooperate with the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the IAEA.

The small boats crisis is getting worse. What's Labour's plan?
The small boats crisis is getting worse. What's Labour's plan?

Spectator

time3 hours ago

  • Spectator

The small boats crisis is getting worse. What's Labour's plan?

How long it seems since the then Home Secretary Sajid Javid declared a 'major incident' in the Channel on account of the numbers of migrants attempting to cross. In fact, it was December 2018. Javid expressed his deepening concern that 250 people had been intercepted in the Channel between January and November 2018. And the migrants kept coming in the last week of that year. Nine landed near Sandgate in Kent on 26 December and eight more were spotted in a small boat the following day. Yvette Cooper, then the chair of the Commons home affairs select committee, demanded action. 'There is a real risk of tragedy if urgent action isn't taken,' she said. 'The British and French authorities have known for some time about the risks posed by criminal gangs of people smugglers along the coast…much more coordinated French and British action is needed to tackle them.' Six and a half years later, Cooper is the Home Secretary in a government that is breaking records for illegal arrivals. 50,000 have crossed the Channel in small boats in the 13 months since Keir Starmer took office. More than 27,000 migrants have crossed the Channel so far this year, up from 18,342 for the same period in 2024. According to the figures from Frontex, the EU's border agency, 41,800 'attempts' to reach England were made in the first seven months of 2025, a leap of 26 per cent on the previous year. In other words, about 14,000 'attempts' to cross the Channel have failed for various reasons. Not that this will deter the migrants. The countries most heavily represented in the arrivals in England are Afghanistan, Somalia and Eritrea. These people aren't going to give up and head home to their war-torn countries. They will keep on trying. The cynic might reflect that the determination of the migrants to reach England is in inverse proportion to the determination of the British government to keep them out. This determination to cross the Channel is becoming ever more ferocious. Police reinforcements have been sent to the Channel town of Gravelines between Calais and Dunkirk after a weekend of violent disorder. According to the French press, 'groups of migrants threw stones at parked and moving vehicles in the middle of the night, as well as at homes and even the fire and police vehicles.' A report on the situation in a local newspaper on Tuesday quoted a resident saying: People are fed up. We are starting to hear talk of [vigilante] militias being formed. The population is tense. We can't let this continue. The response of the British government to the news that it has passed the 50,000 migrant mark in just 13 months was to blame the criminal gangs. Baroness Smith of Malvern, Labour's education minister, said it was not Labour's fault but rather the gangs who had 'got an absolute foothold in the tragic trafficking of people across the Channel'. But these are the same gangs Yvette Cooper was talking about in 2018. Shouldn't she have prepared a plan of action to 'smash the gangs' years ago in expectation of coming to power? As if to underline the ineffectiveness of this Labour government, Frontex also released figures for other popular migrant routes into Europe. Most show a marked decrease in the number of irregular entries. The Eastern Mediterranean passage is down 16 per cent for the first seven months of 2025 compared to the previous year; in the Western Balkans it has dropped by 47 per cent and the Western Africa route is down by 46 per cent. Migrants entering via the Central and Western Mediterranean have increased slightly (9 and 11 per cent respectively) but they are small in comparison to the 26 per cent rise in Channel crossings. Frontex attributed the Channel increase to good weather and the use of 'taxi boats' that pick people up from various spots on the French coast to avoid detection by police and coast guards. Furthermore, the gangs who run this taxi service are filling their boats with more migrants, sometimes as many as 100 in one small vessel. Frontex concluded that 'smuggling networks remain active and agile'. In other words, the only thing that changed since 2018 is the numbers. If Sajid Javid called a couple of hundred migrants a 'major incident', one wonders how Yvette Cooper would describe 50,000?

UK to co-chair talks with European and US leaders over ending war in Ukraine
UK to co-chair talks with European and US leaders over ending war in Ukraine

ITV News

time7 hours ago

  • ITV News

UK to co-chair talks with European and US leaders over ending war in Ukraine

Pro-Ukraine allies - including the UK and Europe - will meet virtually with US President Donald Trump on Wednesday about ending the war in Ukraine ahead of the US and Russian leaders summit. US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are expected to meet in Alaska on Friday in a bid to secure a peace deal. But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has not been invited to the summit, and European leaders have been rallying around Kyiv insisting that Ukraine must determine its own future. Prime Minister Keir Starmer is co-chairing a separate meeting with Zelensky, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Wednesday afternoon. The leaders will then be joined by Trump and US Vice President JD Vance, where the European leaders will be hoping to convince the US to advance Ukraine's and Europe's interests. Trump has said a peace deal with Russia would require Ukraine to give up some Russian-held territory and could include some "land swapping" with Ukraine. But Zelenskyy said he would not give eastern Ukraine to Russia or withdraw from the territories that it controls, warning it would act as a "springboard for a future new offensive." Ahead of Wednesday's call, a Downing Street spokesperson said Starmer was focused on a solution to the conflict "in Ukraine's national interests". 'He is determined to achieve a just and lasting peace in Ukraine, backed by robust and credible security guarantees that will deter Russia from threatening Ukraine in the future," the spokesperson said. After the call, Starmer will co-chair a Coalition of the Willing meeting to provide an update on what occurred. The coalition is an international effort to support Ukraine towards lasting peace, led by the UK, France and Ukraine. It is made up of 31 countries that have pledged strengthened support for Kyiv, including 27 European countries, as well as Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store