Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron are expected to announce plans for French police to do more to block small boats crossing the Channel at a summit in London this week, but a wider deal on returning asylum seekers is still up in the air, reports The Guardian.
While details remain limited, with French officials believed to be still finalising what action the country can take with boats that are already in shallow waters, an announcement is expected on Wednesday.
It is also still possible that Starmer and the visiting French president could set out plans for a “one in, one out” returns scheme for asylum seekers who make it to Britain, although UK officials say this is less likely. This scheme would allow for the return of small boat arrivals in exchange for the UK accepting another asylum seeker from France who is thought to have a clearer right to claim asylum in Britain, such as through family ties.
France is expected to announce it will allow police to intervene in shallow waters up to 300 metres from shore in order to stop small boats leaving. It would help prevent “taxi-boats”, which pick people up in the water rather than launching from the beach with passengers on board. This will require changes to existing protocol that do not contravene the UN convention on the law of the sea, which bars any intervention at sea that is not an actual rescue.
Maritime authorities have been asked to draw up proposals to “advance” French protocol on interceptions to allow such interventions to take place “while still respecting the UN convention on the law of the sea”.
It is understood that a French review of such tactics has been completed, with French and British officials continuing talks about what more could be done. On Friday, French police used knives to puncture a boat in shallow seas near Boulogne, in northern France, although it is not known if this was a sign of new protocols or a one-off.
Read more of this report from The Guardian.