£75m to crack down on people smugglers

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has announced £75 million in funding to increase the number of border security officers and crack down on people smugglers. Also human trafficking.

The UK’s Border Security Command will deliver cutting edge new technology, extra officers and further covert capabilities across the system. This follows a significant, immediate cash injection, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced today.

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.

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. This 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 funding also covers an additional 100 specialist investigators for the NCA. This announced by the government last month, representing a 25% increase in the agency’s dedicated personnel tackling organised immigration crime.

Government 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.