Australian National Review – Border Security Command gets £75m to tackle illegal immigration

The new Border Security Command has received a “significant, immediate funding injection” of £75 million to support the multi-agency unit in tackling illegal immigration crime, the government has announced.

The investment will go towards purchasing advanced surveillance technology, such as covert cameras, and establishing a new unit to improve intelligence sharing between British police forces, the Home Office said on Tuesday.

The funding will also cover the recruitment of additional staff, including 100 extra specialist detectives at the National Crime Agency (NCA).

Rob Jones, NCA Director of Operations, said the organisation is currently leading around 70 investigations into organised crime gangs involved in illegal immigration and that more resources are being devoted to these investigations than ever before.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “Criminal gangs are getting away with undermining our border security and putting lives at risk. Border Security Command will be carrying out a major overhaul and upgrade of law enforcement efforts against smugglers and people trafficking gangs to improve our border security.

“State-of-the-art technology and enhanced intelligence capabilities ensure that we use every tool at our disposal to dismantle this despicable trade.”

According to the Home Office, the funds were diverted from the budget originally allocated under the previous Conservative government to facilitate illegal immigration and asylum schemes under the Illegal Migration Act, which was primarily the Rwanda plan.

Since July, 10,000 illegal immigrants have arrived

The announcement comes as the number of illegal immigrants arriving by boat since Labour won the election has reached 10,000.

Last weekend alone, 1,093 illegal immigrants arrived. French authorities confirmed that another eight people died early Sunday morning on the coast of Ambleteuse in northern France while trying to make the crossing.

Home Office figures show 65 illegal immigrants crossed the Channel in two boats on Monday, taking the provisional total for the year so far to 23,598. Since Sir Keir Starmer became prime minister on 4 July, 10,024 immigrants have arrived.

The total for 2024 so far is down 1 percent from this time last year (when 23,940 arrived) and down 21 percent from the same period in 2022 (29,783).

Responding to the news, a Number 10 spokeswoman said work was being carried out immediately and that the government was tackling small boat crossings “on all fronts”.

Hewitt accompanied Starmer on the trip, where Meloni told how her country had achieved a 60 percent drop in illegal immigration by sea over the past year.

Meloni’s strategy involves a combination of tackling organised illegal immigration crime and working with North African countries to prevent border crossings via the Mediterranean. A new processing agreement has also been signed with Albania, which has been compared to the UK’s programme for Rwanda.

The Italian prime minister told a news conference that Starmer had shown “great interest” in Italy’s deal with Albania. However, Starmer indicated he was more interested in Italy’s work to tackle the source problems of illegal immigration, saying he believed the reduction was “more likely due to the work that the prime minister (Meloni) has done upstream.”

Starmer abandoned plans by the previous Conservative government to send immigrants arriving illegally in the UK to Rwanda.

During Monday’s trip, he called the plan a “gimmick” that cost £700 million and resulted in just four volunteers going to the African country, before declaring that his government had overseen “the largest flight ever set off to take people back to their countries of origin”.

PA Media contributed to this report.