UK border chief ‘frustrated’ at French failure to curb small boat crossings
Martin Hewitt tells MPs ‘political instability’ is factor in failure of police to roll out more interventionist tactics
The UK’s border chief has expressed frustration that the French authorities have not been able to roll out tactics to puncture and disable boats carrying asylum seekers in shallow waters.
Martin Hewitt, the border security commander at the Home Office, told MPs that rapid changes in government in France had been a “political backdrop” to introducing a tactic seen as crucial to countering “taxi boats” being used to smuggle people to the UK.