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Speaking at the Interpol General Assembly in Glasgow this week, Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced additional funding for agencies to invest in additional staff and equipment to combat human trafficking.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has announced an extra £75 million for new technology and other investment in border security, as he vowed to eradicate the ‘vile trade’ of people smuggling.
Speaking at the Interpol General Assembly in Glasgow, Starmer said Britain was “resetting” its approach to the issue of people smuggling and pledged to increase international cooperation to tackle the challenge.
The Prime Minister said the additional funding would bring investment in the Border Security Command to £150 million over the next two years. The money will fund 100 additional specialist researchers and surveillance equipment.
This includes “investing heavily in the National Crime Agency’s technology and capabilities, delivering cutting-edge data exploitation and improvements to technologies to boost cooperation with European partners,” the government said.
Starmer told delegates that effective cooperation to tackle people smuggling would be as important as the deal agreed when Glasgow hosted COP26 at the same venue in 2021.
He said: “It is your leadership today that can help make a decisive breakthrough in this despicable trade in human lives. If together we can win this war against the people smugglers, this meeting will have achieved a victory for humanity as important as the Glasgow Climate Pact, because you helped destroy the gangs, secure our borders and save countless lives . ”
The Border Security Command will be given enhanced powers through a new Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act that aims to tackle organized immigration crime while ensuring strong and effective border security.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “Criminal smuggling gangs are profiting from undermining our border security and endangering lives, and they have been getting away with it for far too long. Our new Border Security Command, with the investments outlined today, will represent a monumental change in the way we tackle these criminal gangs. Human smugglers and traffickers operate in networks across borders. That is why we have given a major boost to our collaboration with international partners, including other European countries, the G7 and Europol, and why we are so pleased to be hosting the INTERPOL Conference on Tackling International Crime in Glasgow today.”
The investment comes after the Labor government scrapped the previous administration’s plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, calling it a “gimmick”.
A version of this story originally appeared in PublicTechnology’s sister publication Holy red
