WATCH NOW: Mark White reacts as French police FINALLY try to stop small boats
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More than 15,000 small boat migrants have crossed the English Channel so far this year
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Watch as GB News Home and Security Editor Mark White shares new footage from the coast of France showing police intercepting vessels of Britain-bound illegal migrants.
Speaking to Miriam Cates, Mark said the images could be the "first evidence" of French authorities intervening in migrant boats crossing the Channel.
As the UK sees another big day of migrants piling across the Channel from France, Mark explained why the footage is significant.
Mark said: "We've had boatload after boatload of migrants, but take a look at this. This, we think, is the first evidence of French police officers pushing out into the English Channel.
Mark White analysed footage which has emerged of French police intercepting a vessel of illegal migrants
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"They are walking out there and trying to deal with migrants who are using a small boat, getting out onto that small boat."
Sharing his analysis of the footage, Mark continued: "These police officers used pepper spray on those migrants, and also officers are firing tear gas down onto the beach.
"Other migrants are trying to get out into the water to get onto their boats, and multiple tear gas canisters are being fired out there. You can see them streaming through the sky down onto the beach, and the smoke that is being pushed out there."
Describing how far the officers are wading into the water to deal with the migrant boats, Mark told Miriam: "You can see the the French are wading out there quite a way into English Channel, certainly up to high leg height in terms of the waves that are coming in there.
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Footage has emerged of French police intercepting a small boat of illegal migrants
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"And there's other images we've seen that show those French officers close to the migrants who are trying to scramble onto the small boats and using pepper spray."
Highlighting that the British Government has been hoping for this level of intervention, Mark stated: "It's hard to be 100 per cent sure, because it may have been used as a tactic before, but we've been waiting for what the British Government have promised for some time.
"That the French were going to be more robust in the way they were dealing with these small boat migrants out in the English Channel on the beaches of France. It looks as though that's what we're seeing."
However, Mark also said the development has a "big caveat".
Mark told GB News that the UK could see another record-breaking day for migrants
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He said: "The big caveat to all of this is, this was them on one stretch of beach, Gravelines Beach, just near Dunkirk.
"But many other boats have crossed and we're looking at well over 1,000 migrants crossing today."
He added: "And despite the fact we're told that about three or four boats got into difficulties and didn't make it all the way across, or at least some of the migrants had to come off them, we would be definitely looking at a one-day record for the year so far."