UK recalls Navy vessels sent to Jersey in fishing row

LONDON: Britain on Thursday recalled two Royal Navy vessels sent to Jersey, the government announced, as French fishermen protesting over post-Brexit fishing rights returned home without blockading the island’s main port.

"Given the situation is resolved for now, the Royal Navy Offshore Patrol Vessels will prepare to return to port in the UK," Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s office said in a statement.In the run up to Thursday’s protest, French fishermen had been loudly complaining about new licensing requirements announced by Jersey authorities.

They view the paperwork as deliberately obstructing them -- the same charge made by other French boat owners who have denounced delays in the licensing process for access to British territorial waters.

At the end of last month, more than a hundred French fishermen briefly blocked trucks carrying British fish to processing plants in the port of Boulogne-sur-Mer.