(Bloomberg) -- UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer urged international allies to treat people-smugglers like terrorists as he sought to adopt a hard line on irregular migration, a policy concern that’s caused a surge in right-wing support across Western countries.
“Illegal migration is without question a massive driver of global insecurity,” Starmer said in a speech on Monday as he opened the general assembly of the global policing body Interpol in Glasgow, Scotland. “Unless we bring all the powers we have to bear on this in much the same way as we do for terrorism, then we will struggle to bring these criminals to justice.”
Labour’s Starmer, in power for four months, is trying to forge new approach to stopping asylum seekers from crossing the English Channel in small boats from France, after canceling the former Tory administration’s plan to deport arrivals to Rwanda upon taking office. He’s focused instead on increasing international cooperation and beefing up border security in order to “stop the boats.”
“There’s nothing progressive about turning a blind eye as men, women and children die in the Channel,” he said. “Make no mistake, people smuggling needs a global response, and on a scale way beyond where we are now.”
EU counterparts had shown an interest in giving Britain access to the Eurodac intelligence database used to identify asylum seekers, Starmer told reporters at the event. “There is an appetite to work more closely with us on this. Because look, these are shared challenges,” he said.
“As part of the UK’s wider reset with the European Union, we are seeking a new security pact, including restoring access to real-time intelligence sharing networks,” he said in his speech.
Small boat arrivals to the UK have surged in recent years, with some 30,661 people reaching British shores through to the end of October this year — up some 15% on last year’s level, and second only to the rate in 2022.
Starmer on Monday announced a fresh £75 million to efforts to tackle the issue, bringing to £150 million the amount committed over two years to Britain’s Border Security Command. That will support a new unit to gather intelligence on organized immigration crime, plus “hundreds of new investigators and intelligence officers, backed by state-of-the-art technology,” he said. “We’re taking our approach to counter-terrorism, which we know works, and applying it to the gangs.”
The Conservatives spent some £270 million through April on their Rwanda plan without ever getting a deportation flight off the ground.
(Updates with further Starmer remarks starting in fifth paragraph.)
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