Prime Minister will meet Chancellor Nehammer
in Vienna today to discuss illegal migration – one of the most
urgent challenges for leaders across Europe.
The pair are expected to agree that designated safe third
countries are part of the solution for best protecting Europe
from irregular migratory pressures and preventing people from
making illegal, dangerous journeys – such as the Rwanda style
model.
The Vienna meeting follows a joint letter from fifteen EU
countries, including Austria, last week calling for new solutions
to address irregular migration to Europe, including potential
cooperation with third countries.
This comes as an additional £25m is given to the National Crime
Agency to sustain – and scale up – theseefforts to disrupt people
smugglers and their operations.
The Government doubled the funding available to the National
Crime Agency in 2023 to prevent the supply of boats and
engines.
This has successfully hit the criminal gangs' profits. After 12
months of a dedicated operation, small boat engine costs have
increased by nearly five times their price in March 2023. And
critically, the cost of crossing the Channel has risen by four
times from its low in 2023.
Prime Minister said:
“We are leading the charge with partners across the continent to
meet the challenges caused by intolerable levels of illegal
migration. Just last week fifteen EU countries called for new
solutions to address this growing issue.
“Our disruption of the cruel trade of criminal gangs, together
with our Rwanda scheme, are part of a deterrent to stop illegal
migration once and for all.
“It is the British public who should make decisions about who
crosses our borders.”
The £25m additional is expected to:
- Provide new equipment and specialist teams in the National
Crime Agency. This will enhance the investigative capability to
disrupt the small boats supply chain and uplift covert
intelligence capabilities, including intelligence sharing with
partners.
- Enhance the Joint Fusion Cell which brings together the
National Crime Agency, policing and Home Office operations to
identify previously unknown leads, ensuring there is no place to
hide for criminal gangs. The new funding will deliver enhanced
information at greater scale by combining multiple data sources
not previously brought together - meaning we will be able to
better identify and expand upon new leads to investigate
Organised Immigration Crime.
- Increase the disruption of supply chains by enhancing the
capability of specialist small boat disruption teams and giving
officers better kit to disrupt organised immigration
crime.
Home Secretary, , said:
“I have prioritised cracking down on organised immigration crime
and breaking the business model of people smugglers since day
one.
“Since 2020, we have already successfully dismantled 82 organised
crime groups, seized 352 boats and prevented thousands of
migrants from crossing the Channel.
“Through our continued work with the National Crime Agency and
enhancing our capabilities even further, we'll do everything
possible to disrupt the criminals who profit from this immoral
trade.”
Last month the UK Government passed the Rwanda Act, and
detentions for those in scope for flights have started.
The first flight will leave in early July and there will be
regular flights, every month, to Rwanda over the summer and
beyond – until the boats are stopped.
The Vienna meeting comes on the back of months of shared European
action to tackle illegal migration across the continent. That has
included joint enforcement action against gangs, the sharing of
intelligence to dismantle smuggling routes, and the sharing of
best practice between countries dealing with large numbers of
small boat arrivals.
The Foreign Secretary will also underline the success of our
innovative partnership to tackle people smugglers and illegal
migration this week.
Tomorrow he will hold high level talks with the Albanian
President, Prime Minister and Foreign Minister and discuss
Albania-UK cooperation on controlling illegal migration on the
front line and the impact UK investments have in preventing
future immigration.
These discussions come ahead of a string of summer international
summits, including the European Political Community meeting in
the UK in July, where the threat of illegal migration is
expected to be high on the agenda.
