London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Oct 08, 2025

Can the UK-France crackdown on Channel smugglers work?

Can the UK-France crackdown on Channel smugglers work?

French patrols often describe their mission as a game of cat-and-mouse, played against the clock, in the dark.

The northern French coastline offers a smorgasbord of hiding places for smugglers. Trees give good protection from surveillance planes, World War Two bunkers are ideal accommodation for passengers, and sand dunes and scrubland hide boats and slow patrols.

Equipment has helped. UK-funded drones, equipped with thermal-imaging cameras, have changed the game for gendarmes here, spotting people even under tree cover.

Specialist buggies built for sand dunes - another contribution from the UK - have helped units get there faster. But the last stretch to where a boat is being prepared for launch often must be covered on foot - through soft sand and thickets of thorny shrubs, sometimes chest-high.

I've seen officers emerge from the chase with long deep scratches on their bodies - the thorns having torn through both uniform and flesh.

It's not hard to hear a patrol wading through that scrub. By the time gendarmes arrive, there's often just an abandoned boat and some petrol left behind.

The smugglers know what they're doing.

There is, the UK government says, no silver bullet. But the resources ploughed into this coastline, year after year, are having some effect: 30,000 crossings attempts have been intercepted so far this year.

And this latest deal contains two key messages about what's working - operationally and politically.

Firstly, there's more investment for equipment and patrols, with the goal of doubling the proportion of crossings that are intercepted.

And secondly, there's a new agreement that France will host British officers in command centres on French soil, to share information and help direct resources.

Sources close to the negotiations also tell me that France has also offered to allow British officers to come out on patrol with French unit as observers.

And Tony Smith, former Border Force director-general, believes it's a step in the right direction.

It might reduce the flows if it works, but it's not going to stop the boats altogether.

"We haven't had very much control in the past, about exactly how the French deploy the resources we're paying for," he told me. "This new agreement means that we have now got operational and tactical liaison going on about deployments."


The UK is coming under increasing pressure to reduce migrant journeys across the Channel in small boats

The UK has lobbied for years to have police on the ground here.

When I asked the French Interior Minister last year about France's refusal of this request, he said it was an issue of sovereignty. Giving me a little smile, he added: "Sovereignty is something the British understand."

So this new concession by the French government could be read as a sign of slowly warming relations between Paris and London, after years of tension under Boris Johnson and Liz Truss.

"I'm hearing that liaison with the French is much better now than it was," said Tony Smith. "Now that Rishi Sunak and Suella Braverman have reached out the olive branch to the French, that seems to have paid at least some dividends."

"These observers could help [the UK] understand the difficulties we are in," said the Republican MP for Calais, Pierre Henri Dumont. "We cannot have half our police officers on the French coast. We don't have the human resources. We're talking about human personnel, not just drones and cameras."

Others here are more cynical. As one official at the Calais town hall privately suggested to me, including British police in the operation here - even as observers - makes it harder for those in the UK to continue pointing the finger of blame at France.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×