France's interior minister has said police should not enter shallow waters to stop dinghies carrying migrants from leaving. Laurent Nunez made the remarks while addressing a parliamentary commission into UK-French migration treaties.
Two frameworks for intervention
Nunez said police and gendarmerie officers are only allowed to intervene to stop migrants from crossing the Channel within "two frameworks". The first allows officers to stop people before they reach the waters, while the second enables a new and specially-trained elite police unit to intercept boats at sea led by people smugglers.
He said: "On the boundary between what is at sea and what is on land, I would say that there is no intervention by the police or the gendarmerie once people are in the water."
Priority on land
Stating police should not endanger lives, he conceded officers can intervene in shallow waters if they see a small boat capsizing. Nunez said the "priority" was to intercept migrants on land before they embark on dangerous journeys.
He added: "The priority is indeed to prevent people from taking to the water. The doctrine for intervention at sea is a different matter; it is an operation carried out under the authority of the maritime prefect under extremely strictly defined conditions."
"There are no interventions at sea outside the two frameworks I have just outlined: land-based intervention, to prevent people from setting off from land, and the doctrine of intervention at sea, which is very new and has resulted in around ten interventions since its introduction a few months ago."
"Outside these two frameworks, there are no at-sea interventions, except where absolutely necessary to save human lives and come to the aid of migrants."
Political reaction and funding
Chris Philp, shadow home secretary, told the Telegraph: "This confirms what a French gendarme admitted to me on a beach a few weeks ago – French land forces will stand by and do nothing while illegal immigrants embark in knee-deep water."
"Some of them later drown – so not intervening is actually causing people to die. I have stood next to a boat launching in shallow water and they could easily be safely stopped, as the Belgians do."
In April, the Labour government led by Sir Keir Starmer signed an agreement with Paris to strengthen operations to combat illegal migration in northern France. The partnership set out £500 million to be invested to strengthen the control system in northern France and a further £161 million to fund new actions based on their impact on crossing prevention.
The Government said at the time: "If these new measures do not yield sufficient results, on the basis of a joint annual evaluation, funding will be redirected to new actions."
More than 18,500 people have made the dangerous crossing on the Channel so far this year, down 42% compared with the same period in 2025. Between September 19 and 25, migrants arrived on four occasions. On September 23, 10 boats reached British shores carrying 781 people, Home Office figures show.
