France says it diverted British fishing boat in French waters without correct licence

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PARIS (Reuters) -A British fishing boat was escorted away from French waters earlier on Friday after it was found to have been fishing there without the appropriate licence, the regional French authority for the English Channel area said on Friday.

Fishing rights have consistently been a contentious issue in talks between Britain and the European Union in the aftermath of Brexit, with the EU having taken Britain to court over its ban of fishing for sand eels in UK waters.

The French authority said the incident happened over the course of Thursday night and early on Friday morning.

“This operation shows how vigilant the French state will be in terms of protecting seafood resources and making sure that all rules are respected,” said the French maritime local authority responsible for the English Channel and North Sea.

Britain and the European Union this week struck a new wide-ranging deal that included giving British and EU vessels access to each other’s waters for 12 years.

However, Nigel Farage – who is head of the right-wing and pro-Brexit Reform UK party – called the deal an “abject surrender – the end of the fishing industry.”

(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta, Editing by William Maclean and Alistair Bell)