The United Kingdom has held its first summit against illegal migration, bringing together representatives from over 40 countries and organisations.
The UK is spearheading the toughest ever international crackdown on organised immigration crime as the Prime Minister and Home Secretary host a landmark summit today (31 March).
The summit, which takes place on Monday, aims to tackle people smuggling gangs into the country and improve border security with expected outcomes across Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and North America.
The UK Home Office stated that this summit represents an important milestone in the worldwide initiative to combat people-smuggling operations, which include small boat smuggling, online trafficking, and unlawful financial networks.
The summit also featured discussions with social media companies like Meta, X, and TikTok to explore ways to stop the online promotion of irregular migration.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper stressed the importance of global collaboration in disrupting smuggling networks, saying, “Smugglers and trafficking gangs make their money crossing borders, so law enforcement needs to work together across borders to bring them down.
“Only a coordinated international response, across the whole irregular migration route can effectively dismantle these networks.”
The UK government allocated £30 million of funding going directly to high impact operations from the Border Security Command to tackle supply chains, illicit finances and trafficking routes across Europe, the Western Balkans, Asia, and Africa.
It also budget an additional £3 million to enable the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to increase its capacity to prosecute organised international smugglers and expand its international footprint to support the Border Security Command to pursue, disrupt and arrest those responsible for dangerous people smuggling operations.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer noted the need for cross-border cooperation, drawing from his experience as Director of Public Prosecutions.
“This vile trade exploits the cracks between our institutions, pits nations against one another and profits from our inability at the political level to come together.
“When I was the Director of Public Prosecutions, we worked across borders throughout Europe and beyond to foil numerous plots, saving thousands of lives in the process. We prevented planes from being blown up over the Atlantic and brought the perpetrators to justice,” he said.
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“I believe we should treat organised immigration crime in the same way.
I simply do not believe organised immigration crime cannot be tackled. We’ve got to combine our resources, share intelligence and tactics, and tackle the problem upstream at every step of the people smuggling routes,” he concluded.
The summit also delivered concrete outcomes across Europe, Asia, Middle East, Africa, and North America by strengthening international partnerships, enhancing intelligence sharing, and implementing targeted disruptions to Organised Immigration Crime networks.
Speaking ahead of the summit, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said:
“Smuggler and trafficking gangs make their money crossing borders so law enforcement needs to work together across borders to bring them down. Only a coordinated international response, across the whole irregular migration route, can effectively dismantle these networks.
The Organised Immigration Crime Summit is the first of its kind and will reinforce the UK’s position as a leader by securing international commitments to disrupt Organised Immigration Crime at every stage of the business model.
The summit demonstrates mine and the Prime Minister’s absolute dedication to disrupting the callous Organised Criminal Gangs, strengthening our borders and ultimately save countless lives.”
The UK’s global leadership on this is issue is already delivering results. France has agreed to launch a unit of specialist officers who are mobile, highly trained and equipped to respond dynamically to prevent small boat launches.
Germany has committed to strengthen their laws against those who facilitate smuggling to the UK and a new UK-Italy taskforce is hitting people smugglers’ financial flows. After boosting the resources for the National Crime Agency to work with international law enforcement partners, they have seized 600 boats and engines since July.
Along with this, work continues at home through giving law enforcement tougher powers than ever to smash the smuggling gangs, ramping up removals to record levels and surging illegal working raids to end the false promise of jobs used by gangs to sell spaces on boats.
This comprehensive approach is a vital aspect of the government’s Plan for Change, with the threat from organised immigration crime increasing in scale and complexity.
Organised immigration crime spans multiple countries, nationalities, and criminal methodologies, with recent estimate of the total global income from migrant smuggling reaching $10 billion last year.
Criminal gangs headed by hundreds of kingpins are using sophisticated online tactics, the abuse of legitimate goods and services, and illicit financial networks to facilitate dangerous and illegal journeys which undermine border security and put thousands of lives at risk each year.
The summit will also examine the work of the government’s Joint Maritime Security Centre (JMSC) in supporting the US, by providing innovative space-based maritime surveillance capability to monitor and dismantle any vessels along Haiti’s north coast suspected to be involved in illegal immigration, illegal fishing activities and drug smuggling.
The JMSC is harnessing cutting edge technology and capabilities to provide 24 hour monitoring of UK waters and ensure our borders are secure, by using satellite to provide a better overall understanding of incoming threats to the Turks and Caicos Islands. The UK government is working with our partners in Turks and Caicos to support and protect the Island from irregular migration.
This collaboration demonstrates the UK government’s commitment to deploying advanced capabilities against illegal migration while protecting overseas territories.
