UK police ‘to take on North Africa traffickers’
British police working with security forces are to crack down on people-smuggling gangs in North African countries.
National Crime Agency officers are set to join countries in the region in their efforts to stop the people traffickers, The Times newspaper reported.
The Italian government has predicted that up to 400,000 migrants will seek to travel to European countries through Italy this summer.
A record 45,728 migrants crossed the English Channel to the UK in small boats last year – up 60 per cent up on the figure for 2021.
Fewer than 7,000 migrants have been detected making the journey this year, Home Office figures show.
British Minister of State for Immigration Robert Jenrick will travel to Algeria, Tunisia, Italy and France this week to discuss with international partners “the shared global challenge of organised immigration crime”.
Meanwhile, the Home Office has launched an advertising campaign aimed at deterring Albanians from arriving in the UK in small boats.
The drive, which will run on Facebook and Instagram from next week, will try to send the message that people “face being detained and removed” if they make the journey.
The campaign will also aim to “bust the myths of organised crime gangs” who use social media to encourage people to take dangerous routes to the UK, the Home Office said.
“Evil criminal gangs do not care about the safety of the people they smuggle across the Channel and have no qualms about peddling lies online, even putting children at risk,” a spokesman said.
Opposition critics and charities have called the campaign a “gimmick”, with the Labour Party accusing the government of “tinkering at the edges” of an asylum system “in chaos”.
The Home Office would not say how much the publicity drive is expected to cost.
The government’s Illegal Migration Bill aims to send asylum seekers who arrive in Britain by unauthorised routes back home or to a third country, such as Rwanda.
Ministers also hope the legislation will help to cut the daily £5.5 million ($6.8 million) cost of housing migrants in the UK.
The bill, currently in the House of Lords, has been attacked by critics, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, who say it is unworkable and morally unacceptable.