May 25 (UPI) — French authorities have impounded a British vessel for allegedly fishing in their waters without a license, officials announced.
The French Navy stopped the vessel on Thursday night in the English Channel, which is being held at the port of Boulogne while authorities consider prosecution.
“As the vessel remains subject to an ongoing investigation by French fisheries authorities, we are unable to comment further at this time,” a government official said, according to the BBC.
The French coast guard said its navy vessel Pluvier was conducting normal inspections in national waters on May 23 when it discovered the British vessel fishing, the “Lady T,” without a license.
The incident happened just a few days after British fishermen criticized Prime Minister Keir Starmer for agreeing to a deal that gives European Union fishing vessels access to British waters for a dozen years.
Conservative British politicians have accused the French of “shameful double standards over the arrest of a British national now in French custody.
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said French authorities have permitted thousand of migrants to cross the Channel in small boats and “taking no action whatsoever at sea an often ushering the illegal immigrants into UK waters,” he said.
“Yet when a UK fishing vessel is in French waters all of a sudden they are magically able to act. If the French can now intercept boats then they should start stopping the boats with illegal immigrants – as international law obliges them to do.”
French authorities have said seizing the “Lady T” was a “tit-for-tat” action after British authorities fined a French vessel more than $54,000 for breaching UK maritime rules, a French fishing official said.
