France is backing away from a recent commitment to intervene more forcefully at sea to stop small boats from crossing the English Channel, according to multiple sources contacted by the BBC.
There is evidence that France's current political turmoil is partly to blame, but it will come as a blow to the UK government's attempts to tackle the issue.
In the meantime, dangerously overcrowded inflatable boats continue to leave the coast on an almost daily basis, from a shallow tidal canal near the port of Dunkirk.
While the man in charge of border security in the UK, Martin Hewitt, has already expressed frustration at French delays, the BBC has now heard from a number of sources in France that promises of a new maritime doctrine — which would see patrol boats attempt to intercept inflatable boats and pull them back to shore — are hollow.
It's just a political stunt. It's much blah-blah, said one figure closely linked to French maritime security.
The maritime prefecture for the Channel told the BBC that the new doctrine on taxi-boats was still being studied.
Former Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau was widely credited, not least in the UK, with driving a more aggressive approach in the Channel. That culminated last July with a summit between President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.
The focus then was on plans to intercept the so-called taxi boats now used by the smugglers to cruise close to the coastline, collecting passengers already standing in the water.
French police rarely intervene against the overcrowded taxi-boats since it's considered too great a risk to both officers and civilians.
But days before the summit, we witnessed French police wading into the sea to slash the sides of a taxi-boat as it got caught in the waves and drifted close to shore.
In London, the prime minister's spokesman reacted immediately to footage from the BBC, calling it a really significant moment and proof that the French were already starting to take tougher action to stop the small boats on shore and, potentially, at sea.
Soon afterwards, a well-placed source in the French interior ministry told the BBC that policy changes were imminent: We will start interventions at sea in the very next few days, after the revision of the doctrine, said the source.
But since then, Retailleau has lost his job as minister in the latest of several chaotic reshuffles, and a distracted French government appears to be focused on other crises.
It's possible that (the new measures at sea) might never happen, said Peter Walsh, who researches the issue at Oxford's Migration Observatory.
The migrant boats meanwhile are still leaving France, and not just from the beaches. A retired chip shop owner who lives beside a canal just inland from the coast at Gravelines said he had seen four leave in a single day.
He showed us videos of the boats, including images of people scrambling onboard in the middle of the canal, and of a police patrol boat recently circling another inflatable while making no attempt to block it from leaving.
It's mad, mad, mad. You have to stop the boats, said Jean Deldicque, who lives beside the canal.
A marine expert, who asked us not to use their name due to their close ties to the state, said the Canal de L'Aa was shallow enough for security forces to intervene without putting people's lives at serious risk.
Other canals and rivers in the area have sometimes been blocked by ropes or chains, but these have often proved ineffective against the highly adaptive smuggling gangs.
While French politics has clearly played a role in frustrating British government attempts to slow down the number of small-boat crossings, legal and moral issues are also proving crucial.
A major obstacle, cited by several sources, to stopping the inflatables at sea is the fear that it would lead to more deaths and to prosecutions of those security forces involved.
The French navy recognizes the dangers associated with current missions, fearing their personnel being implicated in legal proceedings for their actions.
The confusion surrounding French commitment on this issue has been apparent from the start, with many security sources indicating that getting police to stop the boats by wading into the sea was never a sincere option.
Nevertheless, it seems the ongoing lack of equipment, training, and personnel remains a significant hurdle for the French police.
None of this negates France's determination to patrol its beaches or to tackle smugglers on land, as part of a multi-pronged approach funded by the UK under treaties ongoing review for renewal.
Meanwhile, volunteer rescue crews continue to operate along the French coast, often being caught in the middle of a challenging situation with limited legal backing.
Even as seasoned rescue volunteers express dissatisfaction with current policies, the legal framework appears to leave them with few options to intervene in a meaningful way against the risks posed by smugglers and overcrowded boats.
