France to finally bring forward plan to stop Channel migrant boats for first time

France will come up with a plan within the next six weeks to intercept Channel migrant boats in the water, it emerged tonight.

After years of criticism over their inaction, French interior ministry sources suggested they will target boats within 300 metres of the beaches.

This, they hope, will prevent people smugglers from using so-called taxi boats to pick up migrants waiting in the water.

French President Emmanuel Macron is said to want the strategy to be ready for the Franco-British on July 8, when he will meet Sir Keir Starmer in London.

France will also introduce six new patrol boats that will intercept the “taxi-boats” and rescue migrants. Paris has refused to allow their police officers to intercept migrants in the water because they fear it could put lies at risk.

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 co-ordinates the State’s action at sea, to draw up a proposal by the summer to change this.”

France stopped just 184 migrants from leaving their shores on Saturday as a record 1,195 migrants reached British waters on 19 small boats.

This is despite a specialist new unit being mobilised. It was mobilised last month, the Daily Express understands, leading to claims the French Government are “laughing at us” and “taking us for fools” as they rake in hundreds of millions.

London and Paris agreed in February to establish the Compagnie de Marche, a group of specialist officers with “elite public order powers”. The Compagnie de Marche will eventually be charged with intercepting boats in the water.

A Border Force source told the Daily Express: “We expected the French to be ready for Saturday, it was like a millpond out there. The new elite force they've set up really needs to step up now.”

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper told MPs on Monday that criminal gangs will "likely" have made millions of pounds from crossings this weekend alone, and that further discussions with the French interior minister will take place this week on stronger action.

Fury erupted over the weekend when French officers were spotted standing idly by, even taking photographs, as migrants climbed into a dinghy.

The total of 1,195 is the highest total in the first five months of a calendar year. Some 14,812 migrants have crossed the English Channel this year, up from 10,448 in 2024, and nearly double the number from 2023.