Blitz Bureau
BRITISH Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced on November 4 to inject an additional £ 75 million (97.3 million US dollars) to combat the people-smuggling issue. In a speech to the 92nd session of the Interpol General Assembly in Glasgow, Starmer called on global leaders to “wake up to the severity” of the challenge smuggling presents to border security.
People-smuggling is “a vile trade that must be stamped out” and should be viewed as “a global security threat similar to terrorism,” he said. The Prime Minister said the extra cash injection would bring investment in the UK’s new Border Security Command over the next two years to £ 150 million. The money will help fund additional specialist investigators and surveillance equipment.
Alluding to the previous Conservative Party government’s slogan of “stop the boats”, Starmer asserted that his Labour government is resetting the UK’s whole approach to this challenge. “No more gimmicks. No more gesture politics. No more irresponsible, undeliverable promises that almost by design – seek conflict with other countries,” he said. In a clear departure from Tory policies, Starmer pledged the UK would never withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) under Labour.
The announcement came after 5,417 people crossed the Channel in small boats in October, the highest monthly figure for illegal crossings since October 2022, Xinhua news agency reported.
“We’ve got to combine resources, share intelligence and tactics, and tackle the problem upstream, working together to shut down the smuggling routes. We do that with terrorism. When I was the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), it was my personal mission to smash the terrorist gangs; and we worked across borders to ensure the safety of citizens, across Europe and across the world. Now, as the UK’s Prime Minister, it is my personal mission to smash the people smuggling gangs,” said the former chief prosecutor of Britain.
