Keir Starmer’s plan to stop small boats is doomed to fail for these reasons

Prime Minister Keir Starmer believes the reason small boats, dangerously packed with migrants, continue to cross the Channel is because not enough has been done to “beat the gangs”.

The Labour leader has repeatedly said he can solve the devastating human trafficking problem by more effectively targeting the traffickers who profit from this deadly operation.

Following the recent tragedy in which 12 people died when their rowing boat capsized in the Channel, including six children and a pregnant woman, he reiterated this claim, adding that his strategy for dealing with the recent riots could also apply here.

“We sat down with the police and law enforcement to make sure we got the outcome we wanted and that we could — in this case — get justice quickly,” he said.

“I am absolutely determined to take the same approach here: an active government, an operational top, making sure that we regain control of our borders and take out these gangs.”

As a journalist who has been investigating human trafficking for years, I am surprised that the Prime Minister can just say this.

I also wonder what the National Crime Agency, which is apparently “on its knees”, or the Border Force think about this – what is he accusing them of so far?

And then you get into the details and it gets even more ridiculous.

Starmer mainly claims that he will take a similar approach to what he did when he was head of the Crown Prosecution Service, or as he puts it: “I’ve taken on criminal gangs before. I can do it again.”

He needs to know that human trafficking operates in a completely different way than terrorism. The goal, while equally devastating, is not to spread fear, but to make money.

This disregard for human life stems from the belief that the £5,000 a trafficker can get for putting a child on a raft without a life jacket is worth it.

Because greed is the driving force behind this crime, unlike terrorism, taking out the leader of one cell only plays into the hands of another. Furthermore, there is an almost endless stream of traffickers ready to intervene if a leader is removed.

And then there is the fact that, as I have shown in the past, the networks of people profiting from this trade extend all over the world.

The small boat trips from Calais provide a good income for people who have never seen the northern French coast. They are criminals that Starmer knows he will never prosecute.

These criminal organisations use modern technology to hide their identities and ensure that thousands of customers travel to Calais and Dunkirk.

Any attempt to ‘break’ them essentially amounts to committing to an endless game of whack-a-mole that even those within crime-fighting organizations realize cannot be won.

And then there are the mechanics of small boat travel itself.

Unlike a truck, where the driver must be bribed to leave a trail that could potentially lead to a connection with the smuggler, the evil thing about the rubber boat is that the organizer never has to expose himself.

As many migrants have explained to me, the smugglers let the passengers assemble the ships themselves. And even in the worst case, if the smuggler is caught, they can credibly pose as a customer.

Anyway, migrants have told me that they work together and buy the boats themselves, which means the operation continues even if the gangs are busted.

Starmer must realise that people are so focused on the journey these days that they think it is better to ‘die in the waves’ trying to cross the Channel than to give up trying.

Starmer’s plan fails to take that belief into account and fails to recognise the huge and insatiable demand for travel to Britain that human traffickers are exploiting.

He compares human trafficking to terrorism, when he should actually use the analogy of drug trafficking: a black market that continues to exist no matter how many criminals are hired.