The UK's Border Security Command will deliver cutting edge new technology, extra officers and further covert capabilities across the system following a significant, immediate cash injection, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced today.
As part of the new Border Security Command uplift, the National Crime Agency (NCA), the police and other law enforcement agency partners will receive a significant cash injection to bolster the UK's border security and disrupt the criminal people smuggling gangs.
The investment comes ahead of an expected effort by the smuggling gangs to cram ever more vulnerable people into unseaworthy boats launched from the French coast while the weather remains fair. Their industrial scale smuggling business is under sustained pressure from co-ordinated UK and European partner law enforcement action.
The Home Secretary announced the package of up to £75 million, which redirects funds originally allocated to the previous government's Illegal Migration Act. It will unlock sophisticated new technology and extra capabilities for the NCA to bolster UK border security and disrupt the criminal people smuggling gangs. The investment is designed to build on a pattern of successful upstream disruptions announced at an operational summit, attended by the Prime Minister, at the NCA headquarters last week.
The new capabilities include:
- covert cameras and state of the art monitoring technology, enhancing evidence collection, speeding up investigations and increasing the likelihood of successful prosecutions
- establishing a new unit to improve intelligence collection across UK police forces and information flows to partners, alongside an uplift in prosecutors working in the Crown Prosecution Service to act on investigations to swiftly bring those responsible to justice
- recruitment of additional personnel for the new Border Security Command, led by Commander Martin Hewitt, which will oversee the co-operation of all of the organisations involved in smashing the gangs
- increased work to tackle organised crime groups facilitating irregular migration upstream by intensifying efforts in transit countries to prevent small boat equipment reaching the French coast
The announcement follows yesterday's meeting between the Prime Minister and his Italian counterpart, Giorgia Meloni, in Rome to discuss systematic bilateral co-operation on border security. Italy has seen a significant drop in irregular migration thanks to tougher enforcement and enhanced cooperation with international partners.
Newly appointed Border Security Commander - a director general senior civil servant appointment - Martin Hewitt joined the UK delegation to Rome. The enhanced technical and staffing resources announced today will be an important platform for the work he will co-ordinate across UK law enforcement and intelligence agencies when he formally starts his role in the coming weeks.
The funding also covers an additional 100 specialist investigators for the NCA, which was announced by the government last month, representing a 25% increase in the agency's dedicated personnel tackling organised immigration crime.
The government has also announced a 50% increase in the number of British officers stationed at Europol, supporting European operations to dismantle organised crime groups facilitating people smuggling.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said:
Criminal gangs are getting away with undermining our border security and putting lives at risk. The Border Security Command will deliver a major overhaul and upgrade in law enforcement against smugglers and trafficking gangs to boost our border security.
State of the art technology and enhanced intelligence capabilities will ensure we are using every tool at our disposal to dismantle this vile trade.
NCA Director General Operations Rob Jones said:
I welcome this funding, which will allow us to improve and extend our technology, data exploitation, and capacity-building both internationally and in the UK.
Tackling organised immigration crime remains a top priority for the NCA, we are currently leading around 70 investigations into the gangs or individuals involved in the highest echelons of criminality, and we are devoting more resources to it than ever before.
We are determined to do all we can to disrupt and dismantle these networks, wherever they operate.
CPS Director of Public Prosecutions Stephen Parkinson said:
CPS prosecutors will bring significant expertise to the new unit to help stop human trafficking gangs in their tracks, and pursue any assets gained through criminality.
Working with partners, we will continue to discourage, disrupt and dismantle this exploitative trade through prosecutions and cross-border collaboration.
The announcement coincides with a concerted push by UK ministers to tackle shared border security challenges. Immigration Minister Dame Angela Eagle is attending the annual Berlin Process Interior Ministers' meeting in Germany today (Tuesday 17 September), to discuss strengthening border security, tackling organised crime groups and combatting violence against women and girls across the Western Balkans region.
The meeting brings together European partners with a focus on working with partners across the Western Balkans, a key region in the journey of irregular migrants through Europe and, in many cases, onwards to the UK.
