France has criticised a Reform UK proposal to use the Navy to return people crossing the English Channel in small boats, saying the plan would violate French sovereignty and breach international law.
Nigel Farage’s party said that, if it entered government after the next election, it would intercept small boats in the Channel and return migrants to French ports, even if France did not agree to receive them.
The French interior ministry rejected the proposal in a statement issued on Monday, saying: “This would constitute a violation of French sovereignty, as well as a violation of the law of the sea and international law.”
A Reform UK spokesperson responded by saying: “We will always stand up for British interests and protect our people, whether Emmanuel Macron likes it or not.” The spokesperson added: “Humanitarian missions do not violate maritime or international law.”
Under the plan set out by the party, military-crewed inflatable boats would be deployed from 10 Navy patrol vessels to “come alongside” small boats crossing the Channel. Border Force officers and police stationed onboard would arrest people in the boats before they were returned to France or Belgium by Navy personnel or Royal Marines.
Reform said the operations would be carried out by military personnel, with Border Force officers available in cases of “non-compliance”. The party also said a Bay Class landing ship would provide “detention capacity at sea” for up to 700 people.
Speaking at a news conference on Monday, Reform’s home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf said the party would seek agreement to disembark arrested migrants at French ports. He added: “If the Elysee Palace refuses, make no mistake - His Majesty’s Royal Marines will disembark them safely on the very shore they left that morning.”
Farage, who appeared alongside Yusuf, played down the risk of a diplomatic confrontation with France and claimed that French attitudes towards the idea were “softening”. The later response from the French government indicated clear opposition to the proposal.
In a policy document, Reform argued that its plan would be legal because it would protect the lives of migrants travelling in dangerous boats. It cited the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which includes a duty on states to “render assistance to any person found at sea in danger of being lost”.
Farage said he was confident the policy of “securely picking people up and safely taking them back to France” would fall within “other conventions of international law”. Yusuf accepted that the plan could lead to a “diplomatic argument” with France, but said France had a “commitment under international law” to process migrants.
Legal specialists cited in the source material questioned that interpretation. Andrew Serdy, an expert on the public international law of the sea at the University of Southampton, said the proposals “would require the agreement of France, which is a bold assumption to make, as there is no reason to expect it to agree”.
James Turner KC, a lawyer at Quadrant Chambers with expertise in maritime issues, told BBC Verify that the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea gave states rights to prevent infringement of immigration laws in a “contiguous zone” up to 24 nautical miles from their coasts. However, he said this did not entitle a country to “collect asylum seekers in its contiguous zone - or anywhere else - and take them back to the state they set off from”.
Opposition parties also criticised the plan. Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh said she did not believe Reform’s proposal would work, describing the use of the Navy as an example of “gimmicky” ideas explored by the previous Conservative government.
“You’d spend a lot of time arguing with France, and not enough time actually getting to grips with the problem,” she said. Fahnbulleh said the Labour government’s focus on action against smuggling gangs was a “model that is working”.
Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp also dismissed Reform’s plan as not “credible”. He said: “They can’t answer the question how they would disembark immigrants back in France if the French don’t agree.” He added: “Reform’s policy I am afraid as usual is on the back of a fag packet.”
The French interior ministry said measures agreed with the UK, along with “operations deployed at the local level”, had already contributed to a reduction in crossings this year compared with the same period in 2025.
Home Office figures cited in the source material show that 14,561 people crossed the English Channel by small boat from France between 1 January and 3 August 2026, down 43% on the same period the previous year. More than 2,000 people have arrived in the UK by small boat since Andy Burnham became prime minister two weeks ago, including 326 people who crossed on Saturday.
Small boat crossings have become the most common way for people to be detected entering the UK without permission since 2020. Nearly all those who arrive by small boat claim asylum, which means they are allowed to remain in the country while their applications are considered under international law.
Between April 2025 and March 2026, small boat arrivals accounted for 42% of asylum applications. Boats arriving in the UK between 4 August 2025 and 3 August 2026 carried an average of 67 people, more than double the average in 2021.
Experts say overcrowding makes Channel crossings more dangerous. According to the United Nations, at least 84 people died while attempting to cross the Channel in 2024.
Small boat arrivals remain a relatively small share of overall migration to the UK. The number of people arriving by small boat was about 5% of total immigration into the UK from January 2025 to December 2025, according to the figures cited in the source material.
People from Eritrea accounted for 18% of small boat arrivals from April 2025 to March 2026. Home Office figures for January 2025 to December 2025 also showed that at least 2,000 people who arrived by small boat were identified as potential victims of human trafficking or other forms of modern slavery.
Other irregular routes into the UK have also been recorded. A further 4,535 people were detected entering the country without permission by methods including hiding in vehicles, travelling on ferries or passing through airports between April 2025 and March 2026, down 22% on the same period the previous year.
The government has pledged to “smash the gangs” behind small boat crossings. Burnham visited Dover at the weekend and said the government was “changing the whole approach” as enforcement resources were increased on both sides of the Channel.
According to the Home Office, the number of National Crime Agency officers working on smuggling gangs involved in small boat crossings has risen to almost 800, from 376 at the start of 2025.
