French authorities have made their first interception on the water under a new policy aimed at stopping small boats carrying illegal migrants to Britain.
A so-called “taxi-boat” was boarded by French authorities on Saturday on the AA canal in Gravelines, which is on the Channel coast above Calais.
It follows a change to the strategy agreed in November following increasing pressure from the UK government to increase intervention.
A photo of the operation’s aftermath, obtained by the BBC, shows several people – apparently people-smugglers – on an inflatable dinghy alongside a police launch. The inflatable is then towed to the dock.
The BBC has contacted French authorities for comment.
France agreed to the new strategy at a summit between President Emmanuel Macron and Sir Keir Starmer in Britain last July.
Until then French police had intervened only to stop small boats as they were being prepared to launch on the beaches. It was considered too dangerous to interfere at sea.
But gangs of smugglers have learned to evade police by using “taxi-boats”, which enter the water for some distance and then travel along the coast, picking up groups of migrants, who themselves enter the water to board the boats.
According to an official French document, this method was proving to be extremely effective, with an 81% success rate in 2025.
The number of migrants arriving in Britain from France rose last year from 36,566 to 41,472 in 2024, but was down from a peak of 45,774 in 2022.
Following a July 2025 agreement to begin on-water interventions, concerns about the risk to life led to further delays, and concerns about the authorities’ liability to prosecute if migrants die in an operation.
It appears that these concerns have now been addressed. Under the terms of the engagement, gendarmes would only intervene to stop “taxi-boats” before they took on migrants – and not when they were fully charged.
It appears that the same procedure was followed in Saturday’s action.
Police suspected that the inflatable, which was floating down the canal to the sea mouth, was going to be used to pick up migrants, so they proceeded to arrest the people on board.
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