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France has agreed to begin intercepting migrant vessels in the English Channel, after an extended period of insistence from the United Kingdom.

This policy shift comes after the Prime Minister sent a letter to the French leader asking him to support the initiative and saying there currently "lack any effective preventive measure" in the Channel.

French security forces will be allowed to intercept the migrant vessels at sea, but only before they've picked up their passengers, according to authoritative confirmation.

French authorities have rarely intervened to stop the heavily loaded boats departing from the coastline because it is viewed as excessively high a danger to both personnel and individuals.

"It is crucial that we implement these tactics this period... We have no effective prevention in the Channel waters."

Now, a French naval police representative says personnel will begin intervening at sea, with the objective of protecting lives.

Significantly, the official excluded the use of entanglement devices to intercept boats, which had earlier been suggested as a possible technique to disable the propellers of the vessels.

This determination to take action at all is a significant step forward, following a short-lived change towards a more aggressive approach this summer, which ceased when the former government official departed from government.

This was demonstrated in July, in the run-up to a meeting between the UK leader and French president, when French police were witnessed wading into the sea to damage the hulls of a boat.

Now French authorities will again be permitted to stop boats before they pick up migrant individuals from the beaches of northern France, although it's uncertain how the small boats will be stopped.

Powerful gusts are currently delaying the start of intervention operations and the people-smuggling networks will be looking for methods to adjust to avoid detection, as they have frequently done in the previous instances.

The Home Office and Downing Street have been approached for comment.

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