Belgian Police Official Proposes Naval Blockade to Stop Small Boat Crossings to UK

A senior Belgian police official has demanded the installation of a naval blockade to intercept migrant vessels before they reach British shores. Christiaan De Ridder, Deputy Chief of West Flanders Police, made the call following a surge in small boat departures from Belgian coastal towns near the French border. "We have to stop them before they get to the UK.

We have to find a way to stop them on the water," he told the BBC. People-smuggling networks have relocated some operations to Belgium. In the Belgian resort of Middlekerke, roughly an hour's drive from Calais, migrants have been observed rushing through streets towards the beach to board waiting boats.

Since January, Belgian authorities have detained 40 suspected traffickers and more than 360 migrants, with approximately 30 small boat crossings recorded this year. Such arrest figures are virtually unprecedented across the border in France. French authorities typically escort dinghies safely towards British waters rather than intercepting them.

Direct intervention by French police remains exceptionally uncommon. Images captured at Gravelines beach near Dunkirk showed migrants boarding a vessel with no French officers visible. Last week French officers punctured a migrant dinghy on a beach near Calais and were subsequently reported to a human rights watchdog.

The UK Government has committed £660 million over three years to France to help reduce crossings. The number of illegal migrants crossing the Channel reached over 200,000 since records began in 2018, a milestone passed just days ago. Jean Marie Emmery, the Mayor of Dunkirk, dismissed the Belgian approach.

Speaking on Radio 4's Today programme, he said "We don't need that. " GB News reported the developments as smuggling networks shift routes to circumvent increased French patrols. Belgian actions contrast with the rarity of direct French intervention on beaches near Dunkirk and Calais.