France is doubling its deployment of riot police on the Channel coast in a fresh attempt to stop migrant boats reaching Britain, as the two governments intensify their crackdown on people-smuggling gangs and the political battle over illegal migration escalates.
The number of French officers patrolling northern beaches will rise from 50 to 100, the Home Office has confirmed, with additional personnel from the Compagnie Républicaine de Sécurité (CRS), France’s main public-order police force, deployed until March 2027.
The officers will be placed on standby during so-called “red days”, when favourable weather and sea conditions make attempted Channel crossings particularly likely. They will have specialist public-order powers intended to prevent large groups gathering on beaches and boarding boats.
The reinforcement will be funded through the £662 million, three-year UK-France agreement struck in April, underlining the scale of the financial and operational commitment being made to disrupt the crossings.
According to French operational data supplied by the Home Office, authorities have prevented about 50,000 attempted crossings by boat since the 2024 general election.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said the joint operation was having an impact but warned that the government would not ease up.
“Our collective efforts, on both sides of the Channel, are having an impact,” she said. “Every prevention made by officers is a blow to the smugglers behind this trade. But we are not complacent.”
She added: “We will be relentless in pursuing the criminal gangs and bearing down on the small boats.”
The tougher deployment comes as recorded Channel arrivals have fallen sharply. A total of 20,935 people have arrived so far this year, according to the figures provided — 42 per cent fewer than the 36,244 recorded at the same stage last year and 19 per cent below the 25,931 arrivals registered by this point in 2023.
But the figures mask an evolving challenge for French authorities. Smuggling gangs have increasingly been launching dinghies from more distant stretches of coastline, apparently seeking to evade established patrols.
Earlier this month, a boat departed from near Utah Beach in Normandy before being brought into Gosport, Hampshire. Departures from so far west have been unusual in recent years, yet it was the third such crossing within a month.
The geographical spread of launches threatens to complicate efforts to concentrate police resources along traditional departure points, even as overall arrivals fall.
The crackdown also comes amid a renewed political fight over the government’s migration strategy following the scrapping last month of the “one in, one out” arrangement with France.
Under the scheme, some people arriving in Britain after crossing the Channel could be detained and returned to France in exchange for an equivalent number of asylum seekers entering the UK through a safe and legal route.
By October 1, about 1,500 asylum seekers had been deported under the arrangement, while slightly fewer people had travelled to Britain from France, according to information understood by GB News. Deportation flights are expected to continue in the coming weeks for people already detained.
Meanwhile, Reform UK has faced fierce criticism after its Treasury spokesman, Robert Jenrick, said the party would allow Royal Marines to use “lethal force” against migrants crossing the Channel without permission.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch condemned the language, saying: “Talking about using lethal force is talking about killing people.”
Labour Party chair Bridget Phillipson described the proposal as “disgusting and illegal”, arguing that armed forces should not open fire on unarmed civilians.
The dispute has sharpened divisions over how far Britain should go to deter crossings. For now, the immediate strategy is a larger French police presence, backed by hundreds of millions of pounds in British funding.
The central test will be whether the extra officers can disrupt smuggling networks faster than those networks adapt — and turn falling arrival figures into a sustained reduction in Channel crossings.
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