France will soon be able to intercept suspected migrant taxi boats in the Channel

France will be able to stop small boats in the sea as they head to pick up migrants to take them to the UK, French maritime police have said.

They said people smugglers are increasingly using the "taxi-boat" method, where they send "a precarious inflatable boat, eight to 10 metres long" from a point further up or down the coast from where the migrants are.

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The smugglers then sail along the coast to pick up passengers at different points along the shoreline, with migrants embarking in the water "in increasingly chaotic conditions".

In a statement, the French Maritime Police said: "The French State's response to the phenomenon of dangerous sea crossings to the United Kingdom is continuously adapting to the risks deliberately taken by smugglers.

"In order to protect human life and fight against smugglers involved in criminal human trafficking networks, the Maritime Gendarmerie will soon be able to carry out control and intervention operations at sea on vessels suspected of being taxi-boats."

They also said it is "important to clearly distinguish" between measures to save lives and these "upcoming control and intervention operations".

There had been reports of the French police using nets to jam the boats' propellers.

However, the maritime police said: "The use of nets to stop taxi-boats is not being considered at this stage."

The fact French police have not been intervening to stop the boats overladen with people trying to cross to the UK has been a source of frustration for the British government, which has promised to "smash the gangs".

Sky News has witnessed French police looking on from beaches in northern France as migrants clamber on board overcrowded, flimsy rigid inflatable boats (RIBs).

French police protocol and international law mean that once a vessel is afloat, especially with children and babies on board, intervention becomes risky and complex.

More migrants have made the journey illegally so far this year than in the whole of last year.

But that total remains lower than the record high in 2022. There have also been no small boats crossings recorded since 14 November - a gap of a fortnight.

A UK government spokesperson said: "We continue to work closely with our French partners on the shared challenge of illegal migration, and we have already worked to ensure officers in France review their maritime tactics so they can intervene in the shallow waters."

The prime minister's spokesman said Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron are "in close contact and our cooperation over this issue is ongoing".

"We have asked the French to review maritime rules," he added.