Tension in Jersey after Brexit: France and the United Kingdom have deployed armed vessels to the British island blocked by French fishermen

France and United Kingdom deployed patrollers on the English-speaking island of Jersey in the English Channel, whose port was blocked on Thursday by French fishermen to protest against the fishing conditions imposed after Brexit.

Between 50 and 60 ships sailed from 7 a.m. local time, 5 GMT in the calm off the port of St Helier, while others were on their way, according to a photographer from the AFP that he was on board one of the French ships.

In response, the British government deployed two warships to the area, the patrol boats HMS Severn and Tamar, to “monitor the situation”.

London said it was “a strictly preventive measure, according to the Jersey government”.

France, for its part, has sent to the area, in French waters, two smaller vessels, the coastal patrol vessel Athos and the maritime affairs vessel Themis, to guarantee “the safety of navigation and the protection of human life. at sea”., according to the authorities.

The British “maneuvers” “must not intimidate us,” he told the AFP the French Secretary of State for European Affairs, Clément Beaune.

Paris and London have been fighting for several weeks over the issue of fishing. French fishermen say they are prevented from fishing in British waters due to difficulties in obtaining licenses.

To this are added new requirements the UK set last Friday for access by French fishing vessels to the territorial waters of the island of Jersey, the largest in the English Channel.

The measures create new zoning rules for waters near Jersey: “where boats can go and where not”, as well as the number of days fishermen can spend at sea and with which machines, “the French ministry noted. .

For France, these new rules have no effect since London has not notified them to the European Commission. and they are not part of the fisheries deal negotiated as part of Brexit.

Boris Johnson spoke to the island’s chief minister John Le Fondré on Wednesday and told him that “any blockade” by France would be “totally unjustified”, according to a spokesperson for Downing Street, the office official of the Prime Minister.

Tuesday, the French Minister of Maritime Affairs, Annick Girardin, warned France could cut electricity in Jersey in retaliation, a brutal escalation condemned by the British government as “unacceptable”.

However, Beaune accused Britain of failing to implement the Brexit deal which entered into force on January 1 and guaranteed French fishermen the right to continue working in British waters once they they obtained licenses from the British authorities.

Escalating tensions have made headlines in most British newspapers, even as the country holds the largest round of local and regional elections in decades.

“Boris sends gunboats to Jersey”, we read in the Daily mail, while The Daily Telegraph He said Johnson had sent the Navy to the island to “face the French”.

On social networks, some have noted that French and British ships faced each other barely a day after the 200th anniversary of Napoleon’s death, whose rivalry with the British crown was legendary.

Don Thompson, president of the Jersey Fishermen’s Association, said local sentiment on the Channel Island was firmly against the French. “French fishermen want the conditions of their licenses removed so that they can fish without restrictions in our waters, while our boats are subject to all kinds of conditions,” he said. Hello Great Britain.

(With information from AFP and EFE)

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