A tough-talking Belgian police chief has called for small boats leaving his country to be stopped by ‘a naval barrier’ to prevent them ever reaching the UK.

Speaking in response to the sudden increase in small boats leaving from Belgian resorts just over the border from France in West Flanders, Christiaan De Ridder said dinghies must not reach French waters.

Once out of Belgium’s jurisdiction, the French typically focus on escorting the vessels safely into British waters rather than intercepting them, even though they know they are illegal crossings often organised by criminal gangs.

The policy has caused increasing fury in the UK as the French are paid tens of millions of pounds to stop the boats while migrant numbers continue to spiral.

‘We have to stop them before they get to the UK. We have to find a way to stop them on the water. 

‘If we could put up a naval barrier so they don’t get into French waters, everything would stop,’ Mr De Ridder, Deputy Chief of West Flanders Police told the BBC.

His comments came as our exclusive pictures show a boat being loaded with migrants at Gravelines beach near Dunkirk yesterday with no French police in sight despite promises of increased patrols.

Last week, The Mail on Sunday revealed ruthless people- smugglers had switched some of their operations to Belgium to avoid the threatened increased French patrols.

Passengers include UK-bound migrants who embark in Belgium with others picked up across the border on remote stretches of the Hauts-de-France coast around Dunkirk and Calais.

Belgium’s no-nonsense approach to what is a relatively new problem for them has seen a wave of arrests virtually unheard of in neighbouring France as authorities clamp down. 

Forty suspected smugglers and more than 360 migrants have been arrested since January, say Belgian authorities, while around 30 small boat crossings have been registered this year.

In one affluent resort, Middlekerke, which is around an hour’s drive from Calais, migrants have been seen running through the streets and on to the beach to board small boats, according to the BBC.

But Jean Marie Emmery, the Mayor of Dunkirk, refused to accept Belgium’s approach would work despite reports a nearby migrant camp was emptying out as migrants headed for the beach to take advantage of a calm day.

‘We don’t need that,’ he told Radio 4’s Today programme. ‘We need a change of the law. We need a change in Great Britain and in Europe and in Belgium and then it will stop.’

Meanwhile anger has risen over the large numbers continuing to make the journey despite the Government agreeing to pay France £660 million over three years to help curb the crossings.

Last week, some French police took decisive action and slashed a migrant dinghy on a beach near Calais, but the officers were then reported to a human rights watchdog for doing so. Such direct action is increasingly rare from French police.

It comes after it was reported yesterday that 200,000 have now crossed the Channel in small boats since records began in 2018.