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The UK is pressing France to change how it polices small boat crossings, British Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has said.Her comment in the House of Commons on Monday came after more than 1,100 migrants reached the UK on Saturday — the highest number to have crossed the English Channel in a single day this year.
Cooper has faced criticism from opposition politicians, who say that criminal gangs are exploiting a loophole in French law that prevents the authorities there from intervening once migrants are afloat.
Conservative MP Chris Philp, who is the shadow home secretary, said the “French prevention rate on land is lamentably under 40%”.
“The French are not stopping these boats at sea, as the Belgians do,” Philps wrote on X.
Cooper said the UK government has urged the French authorities to allow police to intervene when migrants are in shallow waters.
“The French interior minister and the French cabinet have now agreed their rules need to change,” Cooper said in the House of Commons.
