Prime Minister Keir Starmer has announced plans to double funding for the UK’s border security agency and to combat people-smuggling gangs with the same intensity as terror networks, aiming to curb migrant crossings of the English Channel in small boats.
In a speech on Monday at an Interpol meeting, Starmer addressed the international police community, emphasising that gangs behind irregular migration are a significant threat to global security. He argues that
“the world needs to wake up to the severity of this challenge” and intends to apply “our approach to counterterrorism, which we know works, to the gangs,” according to reports released by his office.
Starmer’s proposal includes increased cooperation between law enforcement agencies, closer international coordination, and unspecified “enhanced” powers for law enforcement.
The UK Border Security Command’s budget would increase from 75 million pounds ($97 million) to 150 million pounds ($194 million) over two years, funding high-tech surveillance and 100 specialist investigators.
Like previous Conservative governments, Starmer’s Labour administration faces challenges in preventing thousands fleeing war and poverty from attempting to reach the UK from France in overcrowded boats.
So far this year, more than 31,000 migrants have attempted the dangerous crossing, surpassing 2023 figures but falling short of 2022 numbers.
French officials report that at least 56 people have died this year, marking 2024 as the deadliest year since crossings surged in 2018.
In September, Starmer, who leads a center-left government, drew attention when he met Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, commending her nationalist government’s “remarkable” steps in reducing migrant arrivals by boat.
Starmer posits that “there’s nothing progressive about turning a blind eye as men, women and children die in the Channel.”
The opposition Conservative Party has criticized Starmer for canceling a plan initiated by the previous government to send some asylum-seekers who arrive by boat on one-way trips to Rwanda. Proponents claim it would act as a deterrent, but human rights groups argue it is unethical and unlawful.
Starmer dismissed the plan as a “gimmick” and scrapped it soon after his election in July, despite Britain having already paid Rwanda under the 2022 deal.
Faridah Abdulkadiri
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