France reviewing small boat policing tactics, Cooper says

The French government is reviewing its policies to tighten up policing around small boats, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has told MPs.

Cooper faced criticism after more than 1,100 migrants crossed the Channel on Saturday - the highest number recorded on a single day so far this year.

Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp said French Police continued to stand by and watch as migrants made their way into boats just off the French coast.

Cooper replied that she was pressing for action on an agreement with French authorities, which would allow police to apprehend migrants in shallow waters.

Criminal gangs are exploiting a loophole in French law that prevents police from intervening when migrants are in the water, so people increasingly wait in the surf for a boat to arrive and then clamber in.

French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau told the BBC he would close the loophole earlier this year, but the change has yet to be made.

Updating the Commons during Home Office questions, Cooper said: "The French interior minister and the French cabinet have now agreed their rules need to change.

"A French maritime review is looking at what new operational tactics they will use, and we are urging France to complete this review and implement the changes as swiftly as possible.

"I've been in touch with the French interior minister, who supports stronger action, again this weekend and there are further discussions underway this week."

Philp suggested the government needed to take a more hardline approach to stop French police standing on beaches and watching small boats sail away.

"They're not smashing gangs, they're smashing records," he said.

Philp added that a recent deal giving EU fishing boats continued access to UK waters until 2038 "should be suspended until the French agree to stop those small boats at sea and prevent illegal immigration".

Responding, Cooper pointed out that Philp was a former immigration minister who had not secured action from the French.

She said: "This government has reached a new agreement with France and we're now pressing for that to be operationalised as swiftly as possible - but we won't take lessons from a former immigration minister who let legal migration treble and small boat crossings soar more than tenfold on his watch."

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