4 days ago
The anti-migrant technology France is failing to use
France could end the small boats crisis through better use of hi-tech surveillance, US-style marine barriers and missions to intercept dinghies at sea, a former British border chief has said.
Tony Smith, an ex-head of the Border Force, said a shift in tactics could plug gaps in the French approach that has led to a fall in the proportion of migrants being stopped from attempting to cross the English Channel to the UK.
Only 184, or 13 per cent, of the 1,379 migrants who tried to make the journey on Saturday were prevented from doing so. The 1,195 people who successfully made it to the UK represented the biggest daily total for crossings this year and it was also the fourth highest on record.
So far in 2025, 14,812 migrants have crossed the Channel to Britain, a rise of 42 per cent on this time last year. The figure is also the highest for the first five months of a year.
So far this year, French officials have intercepted just 38 per cent of people suspected of attempting to make the crossing, down from 45 per cent in 2024, 46.9 per cent in 2023 and 42.4 per cent in 2022.
Mr Smith, who helped halt a similar crisis in the early 2000s under Sir Tony Blair's Labour government, said: 'If we got political agreement with the French and brought in the private sector, we could solve all this.'
Hi-tech surveillance
Satellite imaging, supported by drones with cameras, is now so effective that even at night it can 'zoom in and see what people are having in their sandwiches on the deck of a boat,' said Mr Smith.
He said the technology – which formed part of a £478 million Anglo-French deal signed by Rishi Sunak, the former prime minister, to combat migrant crossings – should be able to identify migrants movements and the deployment of boats by people smugglers.
The UK also has such technology but cannot use it to help the French without their agreement because of territorial sovereignty, even though it could provide a first line of defence.
By tracking migrants' movements, satellite imaging and drones could enable police officers and border officials to be deployed before people smugglers put their dinghies into the water, or at the time of launch, providing an opportunity to intercept them.
'If you get to them before they get into the water, you can disable the vessels before launch. You puncture them. There won't be anybody on board so you are not going to harm anyone. You could seize the vessel,' said Mr Smith.
US-style marine barriers
People smugglers have recently changed tactics by launching dinghies inland on rivers or waterways before sailing them to beaches to rendezvous with migrants, who are then picked up in shallow waters before setting off for the UK. They are what have become known as 'taxi' boats.
In the Rio Grande river, which forms part of the border between the US and Mexico, American officials have deployed large barriers of miles of interlocked smooth buoys which are virtually impossible to climb over or swim under. Such barriers would also block dinghies.
The French have deployed pontoons but they have failed to match the effectiveness of those designed, engineered and patented by Cochrane Global, an international company specialising in security barriers.
Given that many of the French waterways affected are used by other commercial and leisure operators, any extra barriers would have to be designed with monitored exits and entrances to allow other boats through. They could even be deployed across the coastline to prevent migrant boats from leaving the shallow waters of beaches.
Pushing back boats
The French government has committed to amending its laws so that police can stop boats at sea for the first time.
This will mean officers can use their own vessels in shallow waters to intercept overloaded dinghies. However, there is growing frustration that this plan is yet to be put into action.
On Monday, Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, told MPs that she was urging France to complete its review into operational tactics to intercept boats at sea and implement any changes 'as swiftly as possible.'
Mr Smith said: 'France has small patrol boats that can get into shallow waters. They could get alongside these boats while the migrants are trying to jump into them and literally push them back and say: 'You cannot get out to sea,' and stop the boats. Their biggest problem is getting them over the first waves and out to sea.'
The use of hi-tech surveillance methods mentioned above, such as satellite imaging, would enable French authorities to track migrant vessels and help get their own boats into position for potential pushback operations.
French officers have been facing a rising number of violent incidents from people smugglers and migrants while trying to stop them on beaches.
However, French ministers are planning to restore the offence of an 'illegal stay' in the country, which would allow the police to arrest migrants and smugglers before they attempt a crossing.
Currently, migrants who attempt to make the journey are only considered to have committed an offence when they launch a boat.
Joint patrols and returns
Mr Smith has consistently called for joint Anglo-French patrols since the small boat crossings grew into a major migration crisis for both governments.
Under such proposals, French and British officers, operating jointly on sea and land, would return any migrants to France, even if they were picked up off the coast of England.
However, such measures would require a new Anglo-French political agreement because it would otherwise be a breach of territorial sovereignty. To date, France has resisted UK demands for joint patrols for this very reason.
But Mr Smith said such a deal could be achieved, citing the example of an agreement between the US and Canada after the 9/11 terror attack, which he helped craft when seconded to the Canadian border force. It instituted joint patrols, with each country's officers having powers of arrest within a defined boundary on either side of the border.
'It would need a readmission agreement with France. Ideally, you have an agreement where it doesn't matter where the migrants are picked up, even if it is within UK waters, you have joint patrols and they are returned to France,' he said.
However, he admitted it was unlikely there would be the political will on France's part to agree to such a deal.
Nonetheless, Sir Keir Starmer has indicated that Britain is prepared to negotiate a replacement for the Dublin agreement, a mutual returns deal that existed pre-Brexit between the UK and EU.
Although limited in scope, it allowed the UK to return migrants to EU countries through which they had previously passed and where they should have claimed asylum.
