PM announces extra £75m to tackle people smugglers

BBC:

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is to announce an extra £75m to tackle people-smuggling gangs.

The cash boost takes funding for the UK’s new Border Security Command (BSC) to a total of £150m for new tech hubs, as well as extra enforcement, intelligence and prosecution staff.

In a speech to the Interpol general assembly in Glasgow later, Sir Keir will call on global leaders to “wake up to the severity” of the challenge smuggling presents to border security.

But former immigration chief Kevin Saunders said the changes would not deter illegal migrants from coming to the UK and stop small boat crossings.

Sir Keir wants to apply a counter-terrorism approach to border security and end “fragmentation” between policing, Border Force and intelligence agencies.

The BSC, led by Martin Hewitt, will be provided with enhanced powers through a new Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill – to make it easier to detect, disrupt and deter those involved in organised immigration crime.

The BSC will also coordinate the work of intelligence agencies and law enforcement with European counterparts and will be getting extra funds for:

• An extra 300 staff to strengthen global partnerships and deliver new legislation
• An additional 100 specialist investigators and intelligence officers for the National Crime Agency (NCA), to tackle criminals involved in people smuggling
• New NCA technology around advanced data exploitation, to boost collaboration with European partners investigating trafficking networks
• Creating a new specialist intelligence unit examining information from key police forces
• Boosting the Crown Prosecution Service’s ability to deliver charging decisions more quickly on international organised crime cases

In a speech to the summit, which brings together senior police and ministers from nearly 200 Interpol member countries, the prime minister is expected to say: “I was elected to deliver security for the British people and strong borders are a part of that – but security doesn’t stop at our borders.

“There’s nothing progressive about turning a blind eye as men, women and children die in the Channel.”

However, speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Mr Saunders, who was chief immigration officer for ports, said “unfortunately what the prime minister is trying to do is not feasible”.

The UK would only be able to prosecute and jail people smugglers “in the UK and the majority of people smugglers are actually based in the Middle East and Turkey”, Mr Saunders said.

Under the UK’s asylum system “you can’t deport failed asylum seekers” who destroy documents, Mr Saunders said.

Without official documents, the UK is often unable to prove the asylum seekers country of origin meaning their home countries will refuse to take them.

A Conservative Party spokesperson said: “It is a shame that Starmer has not recognised the extent of the crisis in the Channel sooner, as he and the Labour Party voted against numerous measures to stop the gangs while they were in opposition.”