France is ‘doing its best’ to stop small boats. Is this true?

France is ‘doing its best’ to stop small boats. Is this true?



Posted by theipaper

24 comments

  1. [France](https://inews.co.uk/topic/france?srsltid=AfmBOor16ybVCOWmiKQ6PJwlxCdodCJaQJgY0fpor7Jsym8ZC2QO4vg1&ico=in-line_link) is “doing [its] best” to [stop small boat crossings](https://inews.co.uk/news/how-uk-france-taxi-boat-plan-cut-channel-crossings-3789483?ico=in-line_link) and has been “strengthening cooperation” with the UK, according to Sylvie Bermann, the former French ambassador to Britain.

    Speaking ahead of [Emmanuel Macron’s ](https://inews.co.uk/topic/emmanuel-macron?srsltid=AfmBOoozttJhB3zxjRqyOEK-Ieut8BcS2P8FZEnIJTECsrqQoRM5kcTJ&ico=in-line_link)state visit to London, which she described as “very important”, Bermann defended France’s approach to t[ackling irregular migration](https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/labour-mps-red-wall-collapse-small-boats-3728924?ico=in-line_link), insisting the country’s long coastline makes enforcement “difficult” but that authorities are doing what they can.

    Her comments come as Macron prepares to meet [Prime Minister Keir Starmer](https://inews.co.uk/topic/keir-starmer?srsltid=AfmBOor6WrknEcDbLJjIL0Ju-KCg2i-iBEdzkG6xwMt7p_-qwv63zo8r&ico=in-line_link) in London, where both sides are expected to announce new joint measures on [Channel crossings](https://inews.co.uk/news/is-the-uk-really-spending-2-2bn-of-foreign-aid-budget-on-asylum-hotels-3736904?ico=in-line_link), including expanded patrol powers and a possible asylum returns pilot.

    But with arrivals already up nearly 50 per cent this year, the question remains whether strengthened cooperation will be enough to stem the flow.

    Here is what France has been doing to stop Channel crossings, and whether it is working:

  3. “We’ve tried nothing and we’re all out of ideas” 

  5. of course it’s not true, if they wanted to stop them not an single one would leave their shores, and any that did mange it would be intercepted by our borders force and returned back to France

  7. It gets to the core of why we were never comfortable in the EU.

    France is not our friend. Never has been. Never will be.
    It’s only ever about what we can do for them.
    They will take and hold their hand out for more. Always.

  8. Best way to get it off their books. Frenchies must be having a laugh.

  11. People in the comments showing that they just believe what they want to believe that fits their world view or whatever the telegraph tells them to believe.

    We have stats on the number of crossing attempts prevented, primarily by French boarder authorities and they have been stopping increasingly more boats as time goes on.

    Since we started recording data on it in May last year to the end of June they have stopped 1158 boat crossings. Compared to 887 successful crossings in that same period.

    And looking at more recent individual weeks:

    The week of 15/06 they stopped 45 crossings to 23 successful launches

    and week of 27/04 they stopped 32 boats with only 10 successfully launching.

    And most weeks they stop at least half of launches with most being significantly more than half.

    The data also shows separate stats for individual prevented from crossing, arrests of smuggling gang members and people forcibly returned to france. (this number is smaller than registered arrivals as it does not count the groups of migrants in prevented launch attempts, only individuals, but still often matches or exceeds the total number of arrivals in the country)

    So if France were actually “doing nothing” as the right wing propaganda claims we would seeing around 3x as many migrants coming over on small boats as we currently do and thats before even considering the deterrent effects of French boarder enforcement.

  12. 7 million a day to use a pen knife now and again on a dingy…..

  13. They’re doing about as much as I am, and I’m doing nothing.

  14. French are useless but I wouldnt stop it either if I was France because they get rid of the problem by letting the migrants leave and come to the UK instead

  16. To be fair, it’s pretty difficult to stop people from walking into the sea, jumping into an inflatable and heading out to sea.

    There’s no way UK officials would manage to stop more than a small percentage leaving that way from somewhere on the Kent coast.

  19. The fact there was a strategic BBC news crew on the beach kind of tells you it was a photo op. Pure window dressing bullshit

  21. The answer is no, but from the French perspective, the UK is at fault for having such a large grey economy and such a high asylum grant rate. This is kinda a fair cop.

  22. If that’s their best then blimey.
    Get the farmers to block to shores. They can blockade anything. 👍

  24. They are stopping the boats about as effectively as they stopped the Germans in 1940

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