Specialist officers and more deportations: Government reveals plans to tackle small boat crossings
The Home Office will re-open two immigration centres, as well as recruiting up to 100 new intelligence officers to target people smuggling gangs. ITV political correspondent Shehab Khan reports
The home secretary has announced new measures to curb illegal immigration, boost border security and increase deportations.
Yvette Cooper is aiming for the highest removal rates since Theresa May's tenure as home secretary, insisting the home office is taking "strong and clear steps to... ensure the rules are respected and enforced".
The measures include hiring up to 100 specialist intelligence and investigations officers at the National Crime Agency (NCA) to dismantle criminal smuggling gangs and prevent dangerous boat crossings.
This follows a 50% increase in the number of NCA officers stationed at Europol, which is currently conducting around 70 active investigations into people smuggling and trafficking groups.
Cooper said the officers have been swiftly deployed to support European operations targeting criminal smuggling gangs profiting from small boat crossings.
She assured that a range of sanctions, including financial penalties, business closure orders, and potential prosecution, will be imposed on employers of illegal workers.
There will also be a significant increase in enforcement and deportation flights, aiming to reach the highest removal levels since 2018, reversing the recent decline.
Detention capacity will be expanded with 290 additional beds at Campsfield Immigration Removal Centre, in Oxfordshire, and Haslar, in Hampshire.
This increase aims to provide the additional space needed to support higher levels of enforcement and returns, ensuring that immigration rules are properly enforced.
Staff will be redeployed to support the increased returns, which have dropped by 40% since 2010.
Some 300 caseworkers have already been reassigned to handle thousands of failed asylum and return cases, including both enforced and voluntary returns, the government said.
Additionally, sanctions will be imposed on "unscrupulous" employers who hire illegal workers.
Cooper said Border Security Command “is gearing up” to increase removals after the number of migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats topped 19,000 this year so far.
The home secretary said: "Our new Border Security Command is already gearing up, with new staff being urgently recruited and additional staff already stationed across Europe.
"They will work with European enforcement agencies to find every route into smashing the criminal smuggling gangs organising dangerous boat crossings which undermine our border security and put lives at risk.
"And by increasing enforcement capabilities and returns, we will establish a system that is better controlled and managed, in place of the chaos that has blighted the system for far too long.”
Shadow Home Secretary James Cleverly called the government's response "pathetic" as he said their plans are not ambitious enough to tackle the scale of the issue, and called it out for scrapping his administration's Rwanda policy.
He said: "I returned 30,000 people a year on average when I was home secretary, the fact is their aspirations are too low, their energy is too low, the National crime agency - which said it needed a deterrent - and yet the first thing the government did upon entering office is to scrap that very deterrent.
"They still haven't recruited a commander for this phantom border command. Their rhetoric is falling apart and their action is falling well below what the country needs."
Tony Smith, former director general of Border Force UK, told ITV News an agreement with France is needed to tackle the issue and believes the Rwanda policy could be copied by other countries
Home Office figures showed 206 migrants crossed the English Channel in three boats on Monday, which has taken the 2024 provisional total crossings to 19,294.This is a 10% increase on the figure recorded last year, which was 17,620.But the latest figure is 10% down on 2022, when 21,344 crossings were recorded in the same period.
According to figures released by Labour ministers in July, the previous Tory government spent around £700 million on its flagship Rwanda scheme before the General Election earlier this year.
The programme, designed to deter illegal arrivals by small boats to England through a treaty with Kigali, aimed to relocate some individuals to East Africa.
However, only four volunteers arrived in Rwanda, and Sir Keir Starmer declared the scheme "dead and buried" within two days of becoming prime minister.
NCA director general of operations, Rob Jones, said: “Tackling organised immigration crime remains a key priority for the NCA and we are dedicating more effort and resource than ever before.
“These extra officers will play a key role in that, with the NCA currently leading around 70 investigations into the highest harm people smuggling and trafficking groups."
Care4Calais CEO Steve Smith said: “The new Government continuing to invest in border security rather than workable solutions is repeating the mistakes of the last government.
“The evidence shows that these so-called deterrents don’t work. They do nothing to reduce Channel crossings, they just force people to take greater risks to do so.
“The only way to stop crossings, and to save lives, is to create safe routes for people to claim asylum in the UK. That’s what the new Government should be focusing on.”
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