France is backtracking on a pledge to intercept migrant boats, sources have told the BBC

France is backtracking on a recent pledge to intervene more at sea to stop small boats crossing the English Channel, according to multiple sources contacted by the BBC.

There is evidence that the current political turmoil in France is partly to blame, but it will come as a blow to the UK government’s attempts to tackle the problem.

Meanwhile, dangerously overcrowded inflatable boats continue to leave the coast almost daily from a shallow tidal channel near Dunkirk harbour.

While the man in charge of UK border security, Martin Hewitt, has already expressed “disappointment” at the French delays, the BBC has now heard from a number of sources in France that promises of a new “maritime doctrine” – under which patrol boats will try to intercept inflatable boats and tow them back to shore – are hollow.

“It’s just a political ploy. It’s very blah blah,” said a figure closely associated with French maritime security.

The Maritime Prefecture for the English Channel told the BBC that the new taxi boat doctrine was “still being studied”.

Former Home Secretary Bruno Retaillo was widely credited, not least in the UK, with driving a more aggressive approach across the Channel.

This culminated last July with a summit between President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.

The focus then was on plans to intercept the so-called “taxi boats” now used by smugglers to travel close to the coastline, picking up passengers already standing in the water.

French police rarely intervene against overcrowded taxi boats as they are considered too much of a risk to both officers and civilians.

But days before the summit, we witnessed the French police entering the seasouth of Boulogne to cut the sides of a taxi boat that was caught in the waves and drifting close to shore.

In London, the Prime Minister’s spokesman immediately reacted to our footage, calling it a “really important moment” and evidence that the French are already starting to take tougher action to stop small boats on shore and, potentially, at sea.

Soon after, a well-placed French interior ministry source told the BBC that policy changes were imminent.

“We will start interventions at sea already in the next few days, after reviewing the doctrine,” the source said.

But Retailleau has since lost his ministerial post in the latest of several chaotic reshuffles, and a distracted French government appears to be focusing on other crises.

“It’s possible (the new offshore measures) may never happen,” said Peter Walsh, who researches the issue at the Oxford Migration Observatory.

Meanwhile, boats with migrants are still leaving France, and not just from the beaches.

A retired chip shop owner who lives by a canal just inland from the coast in Gravelines said he saw four leave in one day.

He showed us videos of the boats, including images of people climbing aboard in the middle of the canal and of a police patrol boat recently circling another inflatable without making any attempt to block it from leaving.

“It’s crazy, crazy, crazy. You have to stop the boats,” Jean Deldick said.

A maritime expert, who asked us not to use their name because of their close ties to the state, said the Canal de L’Aa was shallow enough for security forces to intervene without putting people’s lives at serious risk.

Other canals and rivers in the area were sometimes blocked with ropes or chains, but these often proved ineffective against the highly adaptable smuggling gangs.

Although French policy clearly played a role in thwarting the British government’s attempts to slow the number of small boat crossings, legal and moral issues also proved crucial.

A major obstacle cited by several sources to stopping inflatables at sea is the fear that it will almost inevitably lead to more deaths and prosecution of the security forces involved.

“The French navy is against it. They realize that this kind of mission is extremely dangerous and they risk being involved and going to court. It would be a disaster,” one source said.

Even a less ambitious idea mooted by British officials to give French police more legal freedom to intervene from beaches and go deeper into the water to stop boats was rejected. If it was ever really considered.

Current rules allow French police and firefighters to intervene in shallow waters only to rescue people who appear to be in immediate danger. We witnessed this at Ecault beach near Boulogne in early July.

From the beginning, there was confusion about the French commitment to this issue. Several French security sources told us that getting the police to stop the boats by stepping into the sea was never even a remote possibility.

But French unions suggest the changes were considered and rejected.

Police union spokesman Jean-Pierre Kloez said the interior minister’s plans, raised earlier this year, were now “on hold”.

“At the time we thought it was (too) dangerous. The rules are the same for now. There is no change in the way we do things.”

Mr Cloez and others also mentioned the continued lack of equipment, training and staff.

None of this means that France is abandoning its commitment to patrol its beaches or intercept smugglers and their boats on land.

The operation is large-scale, complex and stretches along more than 150 km (90 mi) of coastline.

The UK is paying for a significant proportion of the work under the terms of the Sandhurst Treaty, which is currently being renegotiated for renewal next year.

Meanwhile, volunteer rescue teams working along the northern French coast continued to pull people, and sometimes bodies, from the water.

Some volunteers have expressed frustration at being repeatedly asked by maritime authorities to escort inflatable boats into British waters: a process that can take many hours.

But they also highlighted the unique challenges facing anyone seeking to intervene in the Channel.

“As strange as it may seem, if they don’t ask for help, you can’t force them to accept it,” says Gérard Baron, head of the volunteer sea rescue in Boulogne.

“The crew reported to me that sometimes when they approached a boat carrying too many people and asked if they wanted help, they saw knives flashing.

“They have also sometimes seen young men holding babies above the water, threatening to drop them if we came near.”

After 45 years of rescue experience, Barron admits he is exasperated by France’s current failure to do more to stop smugglers.

If the existing rules against going out to sea in fragile, unlicensed and overcrowded boats are followed, he believes many lives will be saved.

Additional reporting by Paul Pradier