UK working with European partners to tackle people smuggling, Cooper says

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The Home Secretary said the government was making progress in clearing the backlog of asylum applications and returning people who have no right to stay in the UK.

The Government is “committed” to tackling people-smuggling gangs and is working with European partners to tackle the criminal enterprise, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has said.

Cooper said Friday that her department has made encouraging progress in the past two months in tackling people smuggling at its source, with “significant seizures” of boats and equipment in Europe.

“But there is work to be done, and Border Security Command will bring together all relevant agencies to investigate, arrest and prosecute these networks, and to deepen our ties with key international partners,” she said.

The Home Secretary made the comments ahead of chairing a high-level conference on tackling organised illegal immigration crime, which was attended by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, ministers and representatives from agencies including the National Crime Agency (NCA), Border Force and the Crown Prosecution Service.

The summit comes at the end of a week in which 12 people have died trying to cross the English Channel. The fatalities occurred in French waters on Tuesday, with the mayor of Le Portel, where victims were being treated, describing how the bottom of the dinghy carrying the asylum seekers had been “torn open”.

Cooper said of the deaths: “Those gangs should not get away with it, and that’s why we’re determined to catch them.”

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Cooper also said ahead of the meeting at the NCA’s London headquarters that the government was making progress in clearing the backlog of asylum applications and returning people who have no legal right to stay in the UK, “so that we can put an end to these very expensive asylum hotels”.

Dismantling the gangs

Labour had said in May that it would use the resources and tools used to tackle terrorism to dismantle criminal networks of illegal immigration. This would be done through the development of a Border Security Command that would see cooperation between the NCA, Border Force and even the domestic intelligence agency, MI5.

Two months after Labour came to power, the Border Security Command is still being set up. But Friday’s meeting suggests this multi-agency, intelligence-led approach is already in place.

According to a statement from the Home Office, the UK Intelligence Service (UKIC) has deployed covert capabilities to support the NCA “to penetrate and dismantle the gangs at every operational level – from facilitators to financiers.”

UKIC also attended the Home Secretary’s meeting, where progress was discussed in intercepting and dismantling the criminal networks transporting people and boating equipment along the French coast and through the English Channel.

Stronger international partnerships

In recent weeks, the government has tried to strengthen European cooperation, including with Europol, to combat human trafficking.

The NCA has been working closely with Bulgarian authorities and has established an NCA presence in the Eastern European country, a major transit country. This has led to the interception of more than 40 small boats and motorbikes in recent weeks. The government says these boats and motorbikes may have been used to help 2,400 people enter the UK illegally.

To date, the number of NCA agents stationed at Europol has increased by 50 percent. A new post has been opened in Austria and agents are now permanently stationed in Romania.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer at the headquarters of the National Crime Agency in London, England, on September 6, 2024. (Benjamin Cremel/PA Wire)

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer at the National Crime Agency headquarters in London, England, on September 6, 2024. Benjamin Cremel/PA Wire

The government is also working with partners elsewhere in the country, such as in Libya. There, British authorities are working with local police to tackle gangs that smuggle people through the North African country, from where illegal immigrants depart for Europe.

Last week, the Minister of the Interior announced that there are now 100 specialized researchers worldwide.

The NCA is expanding its international network focused on combating illegal immigration, including in Southeast Asia, where gangs are widely advertising the Channel.

‘Handed over to the smuggling gangs’

This week, 1,276 illegal immigrants have already crossed the Channel, bringing the provisional total for this year to 22,328.

Since Labour came to power, 8,754 asylum seekers have made the crossing.

Former Immigration Secretary Robert Jenrick, the current front-runner in the Conservative leadership race, said Labour had “surrendered to the smuggling gangs” when it scrapped the previous government’s plans to send illegal immigrants to Rwanda, a move the Tories said would act as a deterrent.

Jenrick told Sky News: “Yvette Cooper will be meeting with the National Crime Agency and police chiefs today, and they will tell her what they told me when I was minister, which is that while it is important that we do that work, it is not enough. You have to have a deterrent.”

PA Media contributed to this report.

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