Migrants receive medical care from French firefighters after being rescued following their unsuccessful attempt to cross the Channel in Sangatte, northwestern France, on August 15, 2025.
Bernard Barron / AFP
French officials clearly aren’t serious about stopping illegal migrants from reaching the UK—but then again, neither are their British counterparts.
France’s promise to intercept migrant boats at sea as part of its deal with the UK, which London’s Keir Starmer hailed as a “game changer,” has turned out to be a total dud after police representatives complained that ministers have not told officers how they are actually supposed to do this.
Union chiefs have told border police and gendarmes not to even enter the water because of this lack of guidance, and partly because it is too cold, according to The Daily Telegraph. On a slightly more serious note, UN1TE general secretary Jean-Christophe Couvy told the paper:
We can’t ask officers to risk their lives without protection. I don’t want a police officer to drown because we ask him to go into the water and stop migrants.
Others from the group stressed that given the current lack of guidance, police officers are likely to be blamed in the event of serious incidents or even deaths.
French officials clearly aren’t serious about stopping migrants from reaching the UK. Then again, neither are their British counterparts, or they would have pulled the country out of the Strasbourg-based European Convention of Human Rights.
TCW editor Kathy Gyngell said this revelation made a mockery of the ‘one-in, one-out’ migration deal, which is riddled with other faults besides. Not least the fact that even when operational, only about one in 17 of those arriving will be sent back to France.
Former Tory minister Tim Loughton added that this fresh block to tackling illegal migration was “no surprise,” meaning the deal was yet “another red herring on stopping the boats from Labour.”
Police officials are even less likely now to receive proper guidance from the government than before, given the shaky standing of French Prime Minister François Bayrou.
So much for Starmer’s insistence that “the days of gimmicks and broken promises are over.” It appears there’s still to be plenty more of this ahead.
Michael Curzon is a news writer for europeanconservative.com based in England’s Midlands. He is also Editor of Bournbrook Magazine, which he founded in 2019, and previously wrote for London’s Express Online. His Twitter handle is @MichaelCurzon_.
