Number of police on French coast has been increased amid smugglers’ rising use of so-called ‘mega-dinghies’
Good morning. Nothing is new in life or politics, and the concern that people feel about small boats crossing the Channel now is minimal compared to the alarm that Britons must have felt in 1066 as the Duke of Normandy’s invasion force arrived in England. Almost 1,000 years later, the horror is long forgotten and Andy Burnham was with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, at the British Museum last night to celebrate the Bayeux Tapestry as “the best possible symbol” of the “entente amicale” between France and the UK, as King Charles put it in a speech last night.
This morning Burnham is hosting Macron for political talks in Downing Street and another fleet of small boats will be on the agenda. As Rajeev Syal reports, ahead of the meeting No 10 has announced that the UK and France have increased the number of police on the French coast to stop so-called “mega dinghies” from launching across the English Channel. Rajeev says:
While the combined total number of boat crossings over the summer months has dropped to its lowest since 2019, smugglers appear to have started loading more people onto fewer, larger vessels. Dinghies are now being launched as far as 150 miles southwest of Calais.
Downing Street said measures to counter the trend include deploying a surge team of 45 officers to France’s western beaches in the coming weeks, almost tripling resources in the area.
