French police have used tear gas and pepper spray to try to disperse hundreds of people seeking to board migrant boats to reach Britain.
French officers have long been criticised for standing by and not doing enough to prevent often unseaworthy vessels from departing French shores.
However, they appeared to be adopting more robust tactics on Friday.
Pictures showed tear gas being used to seek to disperse hundreds of migrants at Gravelines, near Calais.
Officers were also reported to have used pepper spray.
At least one family was photographed having apparently been affected by tear gas.
However, the French force was reported to have been overwhelmed by the number of people seeking to clamber onto boats as they sought to reach the UK, and at least one boat reportedly set off for Britain.
The apparent new tactics, though, seem to be a change in approach from earlier this week.
Only days ago, a group of around ten French police, equipped with riot helmets and shields, watched as asylum seekers and economic migrants sought to climb onto boats set to head for the UK.
When asked by Sky News why they did not intervene, one officer said: “It’s for their safety. There are children there. We’re not going to throw grenades at them. It’s inhumane. But it’s sad.”
Around two thirds of people who cross the Channel in “small boats” are granted asylum, according to one study.
More than 200 people have died since 2018 trying to reach the UK in often overcrowded, inflatable vessels, according to the International Organization for Migration.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has urged the French authorities to do more to stop migrant boats leaving their shore and now firmer action seems to have been adopted.
"The French interior minister and the French cabinet have now agreed their rules need to change,” she stressed earlier this month.
As it seeks to deal with illegal immigration, the UK has provided tens of millions in funding for France to strengthen its border operations to deter human trafficking across the Channel.
French interior minister Bruno Retailleau said earlier this year that he wanted to give the gendarmerie new powers so they could intercept boats within 300 metres of the coast.
More than 15,000 people have already risked their lives to cross the Channel on small boats in 2025, with predictions that the total could reach 50,000 by the end of the year.
On Wednesday alone, some 400 people in six boats arrived in Dover, Kent, taking the yearly total to 15,212, rise of a third compared with the same point in 2024.
The highest daily number who made the crossing was on May 31, when 1,195 people arrived in 19 small boats.
Some gangs are even using yachts to smuggle people into Britain.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “The Home Secretary has been engaging closely with her French counterpart about the French intervening in French waters.
“We all want to put a stop to the people smuggling gangs that put people's lives at risk by overloading them onto flimsy boats, which is why we are investing up to an additional £280m per year by 2028-29 in the Border Security Command.”
But the Tories and Reform UK have accused the Government of failing to properly address the “small boats” crisis, having ditched the Conservatives’ controversial Rwanda deportation scheme.
