Britain, France pin hopes on "taxi boat" plan to tackle illegal migrant surge

Early one morning this week, a dinghy motored along a vast beach in northern France, stopping every few hundred metres to pick up illegal migrants bound for Britain. Four French police gave chase, but failed to reach the illegal migrants before they reached water's edge.

Soon, with 70-odd people onboard, the dinghy began chugging across the sea, adding to a record-breaking number of illegal migrants crossing the Channel this year. Deeply unpopular British Prime Minister Keir Starmer's conservative opponents have seized on the data, reminding him he had pledged to "smash" the trafficking gangs.

France and Britain hope to unveil measures at their summit next week that will reportedly allow French police to intercept such "taxi boats", a new phenomenon, up to 300 metres from shore rather than only if lives are at risk as now.

Police, activists and illegal migrants interviewed by Reuters were sceptical such a plan would work.

"I just don't see how this could ever be implemented," said Julien Soir, a police union representative in the northern city of Lille. "Getting it up and running is simply impossible."

He said police were already stretched covering 180 kilometres of coastline and lack the equipment and training needed for seaborne operations. Police also fear drowning if they fall in the water with heavy equipment, or personal legal liability if illegal migrants die or are injured during an intervention.

Angele Vettorello, a coordinator at the Utopia 56 activist group in Calais, said numbers were rising despite more French police patrolling beaches, including with British-sponsored drones.

She said the proposed measures would only make a dangerous crossing, last year 73 illegal migrants died navigating what is one of the world's busiest shipping lanes, more perilous.

If implemented, it would, "lead to even more deaths...more distress," she said.

Asked if France would go ahead with the plan, an aide to President Emmanuel Macron told reporters announcements would be saved for the summit on Thursday, adding that both countries were working to intensify efforts to prevent crossings and break the traffickers' lucrative economic model.

The influx of illegal migrants has helped Nigel Farage's Reform UK overtake Starmer's deeply unpopular Labour Party in polls. Farage, a conservative and longtime immigration hard-liner, has proposed using the Navy to intercept migrant vessels and take them back to France. Lawyers say this could only be done if France agreed.

Nearly 20,000 "asylum seekers" have arrived in Britain via small boats so far this year, a 50 per cent increase compared to the same period in 2024. French and British authorities blame the spike on unusually good weather.

Peter Walsh, from Oxford University's Migration Observatory, said maritime interception may stop more illegal migrants but would not affect long-term trends behind the illegal migrant surge, including multiple conflicts and the allure of English-speaking Britain.

Britain also wants to negotiate a returns agreement with France, which it had before it left the European Union.

At a filthy illegal migrant camp near Dunkirk, Reuters spoke with several illegal migrants who were unaware of the new proposal. They said it wouldn't stop them from trying to cross.

Israrullah Lodin, 26, left Afghanistan in 2021 after his family's work with the US army irked the Taliban. He had failed to cross three times; twice he was stopped by police and once his boat had problems. Lodin dreamed of working in a UK fulfilment warehouse. Nothing would stop him from getting there.

"We are not afraid to die," he said. "I have to reach my destination."

Nisarahmad Afghan, 23, had been an illegal migrant almost all his adult life, having left his home region of Nangarhar four years ago. He had made two failed attempts to cross, both foiled by police.

"Until I succeed, I will keep trying," he said. "I've passed through many dangerous roads. I will pass this one too."

(Additional reporting by Mohammad Yunus Yawar in Kabul; Marco Trujillo, Manuel Ausloos, Abdul Saboor, Gonzalo Fuentes in Calais; Michael Holden in London; editing by Richard Lough and Philippa Fletcher)