France has finally agreed to draw up a plan to stop small boats at sea by the summer, after police were criticised for standing by as people smugglers picked up migrants.
The French government is understood to be enlarging its navy with new patrol boats that could intercept so-called “taxi boats” before they leave for the UK.
The strategy is designed to be ready before French president Emmanuel Macron travels to London for a Franco-British summit on 8 July.
It comes after a furious row erupted over the lack of action as more than 1,000 people crossed the English Channel on Saturday.
French police officers were seen watching as migrants, including children, boarded at a beach in Gravelines, between Calais and Dunkirk, while authorities were then pictured escorting the boats.
Defence secretary John Healey hit out at their failure to act, saying at the weekend that Britain had “lost control of its borders”.
Ministers have been pressing the French government to put into operation new rules, agreed months ago with the Labour government after it came into power, that would allow police to intervene.
On Sunday, Mr Healey said: “They’re not doing it, but for the first time for years, we’ve got the level of cooperation needed … We’ve got the agreement that they will change the way they work, and our concentration now is to push them to get that into operation so they can intercept these smugglers and stop these people in the boats, not just on the shore.”
Home secretary Yvette Cooper has also demanded that the French start intercepting migrant boats at sea “as swiftly as possible” after it emerged that a record 1,195 migrants reached the UK in 19 dinghies on Saturday. The figures brought the total so far this year to 14,812 – the highest on record.
A French interior ministry source told The Telegraph: “We are aware of the high stakes involved in interventions at sea and of the need to adapt our doctrine of action.
“Today, our intervention can only take place to rescue a boat already at sea, in particular because of the criminal liability issues associated with any interception carried out for any other reason.
“We would like to change this framework so that we can operate in shallow waters, up to 300 metres from the coast, and thus intercept ‘taxi boats’, while respecting the principles of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, known as the Montego Bay Convention.
“The Interministerial Committee for Immigration Control (CiCI) has mandated the General Secretariat for the Sea (SGMer), which coordinates the state’s action at sea, to draw up a proposal by the summer to change this.”
The source said the government’s objective was to have “shared guidelines” ready for the July summit.
The UK has a £480m deal with France designed to stop Channel crossings.
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