French plans to stop small boats will lead to more deaths, says charity

A French police officer approaches a boat in the Channel at Gravelines, near Dunkirk, northern France. Photograph: Sameer Al-Doumy/AFP/Getty Images

Plans by French police to enter the sea to stop small boats carrying UK-bound asylum seekers willcause more deaths and be challenged in the European courts, a French charity has said.

Arthur Dos Santos, the coordinator of the refugee charity Utopia 56, said there would be an increase in the number of people who would take “desperate” measures to reach the UK.