UK Edition
Privacy laws prevent France using UK-funded drones to stop Channel migrants
Craft intended to be used to monitor beaches on northern coast have been caught in national ban by French watchdog
France has been unable to spend the millions given by the UK to deploy drones to stop Channel migrants because of French privacy laws, it has emerged.
Drones were supposed to be part of the intensified surveillance agreed as part of the UK's £54 million contribution to prevent migrants from leaving beaches in northern France to cross to the UK.
But they have been caught in a national ban by France's official CNIL privacy watchdog after it was found they were being deployed unlawfully by police to enforce Covid restrictions in breach of people's privacy.
Politicians are racing to change the law to allow the drones to fly again – but they have been unable to do so through the summer as migrant crossings hit new records, with 828 in one day and more than 4,000 since the UK agreed the £54 million deal a month ago.
Speaking to The Telegraph, General Frantz Tavart, who manages a team of 160 gendarmes and reservists tasked with securing a 45-mile stretch of coastline that covers the Pas-de-Calais region, said he could not use a single drone at present.
He said: "It is currently legally impossible for us to use drones in France, not just for fighting illegal immigration but in general. I can't vouch for the national police, but as a gendarme I scrupulously respect the law. I'm not allowed to use them, so I don't. There is no exception to the rule."
Gen Tavart also disclosed that rather than doubling the number of gendarmes on the beaches – as claimed by UK Government sources – Britain's £54 million would only allow him to "maintain" the 90 reservists currently deployed against people-smugglers and migrants.
He questioned whether throwing more money at the problem would make a major difference and said: "Just look at what the Germans did during the war – the number of blockhouses and bunkers to hold the coast, we're talking millions of tons of concrete and thousands of men. Even then the Atlantic Wall failed thanks to the Normandy Landings.
"The problem is distance – 140km [of coast] is just too much to police. A video surveillance system will soon be up and running, called Terminus, that may help. But as a military man, I know that if an army wants to hold a line of 5km it needs an entire regiment – that's 1,000 men. I have 160 on 75km.
"We have been working pretty well. Up until July, we considered that our rate of success in foiling crossings was 90 per cent. But today we are faced with a real explosion of the phenomenon.
"The more migrants who will try, the more attempted crossings, the harder it is to contain. It's a question of volume. There are more and more candidates to cross from Iran, Syria, Iraq, Kuwait, Kurds, Vietnamese, Sudanese, Eritreans and soon Afghans. The more the situation in these countries is poor, the more attempted crossings there will be.
"Even if you manage to stop one boat, if you have four or five more you can't stop them all."
Gen Tavart said traffickers would stop at nothing whatever the obstacles, adding: "We can always claim more or less success, but what stops traffickers upping the stakes, trying their luck in a plane, or take a ferry hostage to cross over en masse? They have nothing to lose."