UK bolsters fight against migrant crossings
The goal is to remove more than 14,000 people by the end of the year, according to The Times.
Migrants react as a French police officer stands by ready to puncture the smuggler's boat with a knife to prevent migrants from embarking in an attempt to cross the English Channelon the beach of Gravelines, near Dunkirk, northern France on 26 April 2024. Picture: AFP
LONDON - The UK government on Wednesday announced new measures to curb the arrival of migrants on boats from France and to step up the removal of failed asylum seekers.
It said 100 new "specialist intelligence and investigation officers" would be recruited to the National Crime Agency (NCA) to help dismantle smuggling gangs that run the dangerous Channel crossings.
The interior ministry added that the government also aims over the next six months to achieve the highest rate of deportations of failed asylum seekers for five years.
The goal is to remove more than 14,000 people by the end of the year, according to The Times.
The new Labour government intends to increase detention capacity at removal centres and sanction employers who hire people with no right to work in the UK, the ministry said.
"We are taking strong and clear steps to boost our border security and ensure the rules are respected and enforced," interior minister Yvette Cooper said in a statement.
Stopping the small boat arrivals was a key issue in the July 4 election, in which Labour won a thumping majority.
Within days of taking power, Prime Minister Keir Starmer scrapped a controversial scheme to deport illegal migrants to Rwanda, which had been a flagship policy of the last Conservative government.
Starmer has instead pledged to dismantle the people-smuggling gangs who organise the crossings and are paid thousands of euros by each migrant.
The interior ministry is recruiting a so-called Border Security Commander who will work with European countries against the people-smuggling gangs.
Starmer has also pledged with French President Emmanuel Macron to strengthen "cooperation" in handling the surge in undocumented migrant numbers.
'GET A GRIP'
But the Conservatives, who are now the country's main opposition party, have attacked Labour on the issue since the handover of power.
Former interior minister James Cleverly, who is running to be the party's new leader, accused new ministers of failing to "get a grip" on small boat arrivals.
More than 200 people crossed the Channel in three boats on Monday, taking the provisional total for the year so far to 19,294, according to Home Office figures.
This is a 10 percent increase on the number recorded last year, which was 17,620, but down on the 21,344 crossings recorded in the same period of 2022.
The interior ministry said the NCA is pursuing about 70 investigations against criminal networks involved in people trafficking.
It said the government would issue financial penalty notices, business closure orders and bring possible prosecutions against anyone employing illegal workers.
The department also said it was adding 290 beds to two removal centres and redeploying staff to try to remove failed asylum seekers at the highest rate since 2018. The ministry did not give figures on the numbers involved.
But Enver Solomon, of the Refugee Council, accused the government of "wasting taxpayers' money on expanding detention places" and said it should be investing in voluntary returns programmes.
"If you treat people with respect, humanity and support them to return, many more people return," he told BBC Radio.
Enver also urged ministers to focus on providing safe routes to deter small boat crossings, arguing "unless the government also provides safe routes, it won't succeed".