The British leader tells Interpol the world must ‘wake up’ to the threat of human smugglers

LONDON (AP) — People smuggling gangs are sending migrants around the world English Channel in small boats pose a serious threat to global security and should be treated as British terror networks Prime Minister Keir Starmer He said this on Monday at an international law enforcement conference.

Starmer told this at a meeting of the international police organization Interpol that “the world must wake up to the seriousness of this challenge.”

“Human trafficking should be seen as a global security threat, on a par with terrorism,” he said.

Starmer, a former chief prosecutor for England and Wales, said his government would “take our counter-terrorism approach, which we know works, and apply it to the gangs.” That means greater cooperation between law enforcement agencies, closer coordination with other countries and unspecified “enhanced” law enforcement powers, he said.

Starmer also announced plans to increase the two-year budget of Britain’s Border Security Command from 75 million pounds ($97 million) to 150 million pounds ($194 million). The money will be used to finance high-tech surveillance equipment and a hundred specialized researchers.

Senior police and government officials from Interpol’s 196 member states attend the global police organization’s four-day conference in Glasgow, Scotland. Starmer and British Home Secretary Yvette Cooper both addressed the meeting, calling for stronger international police cooperation to combat drug trafficking and child sexual abuse, as well as people smuggling.

Britain’s departure from the European Union in 2020 has complicated international law enforcement cooperation by removing the United Kingdom from the bloc’s police agency, Europol. Starmer’s Labor Party opposed Brexit but says it will not try to reverse the decision to leave the bloc.

Starmer said his government was seeking a new security treaty with the EU that would restore real-time intelligence sharing.

Like previous Conservative British governments, the Starmer government is struggling to prevent thousands of people fleeing war and poverty from trying to reach the UK from France in flimsy, overcrowded boats.

The increasingly strict European asylum rules, growing xenophobia and hostile treatment of migrants drive many migrants north. Although the British government has also been hostile, many migrants have family or friends in Britain and believe they will have better opportunities there.

This year, more than 31,000 migrants have made the dangerous crossing of one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world. more than in all of 2023although less than in 2022. At least 56 people have done so died in the attempts French officials say 2024 will be the deadliest this year since the number of canal crossings began rising in 2018.

Starmer leads a centre-left government and raised some eyebrows in September when he visited Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and praised her nationalist-conservative government’s “remarkable” progress in reducing the number of refugees. migrants reaching the Italian coast by boat.

Starmer argued on Monday that “there is nothing progressive about turning a blind eye when men, women and children die in the canal.”

The opposition Conservative Party argues that Starmer should not withdraw the previous government’s plan to ban some asylum seekers reaching Britain by boat. one-way ticket to Rwanda. Supporters of the proposal say it would act as a deterrent. Human rights groups and many lawyers say it is unethical and illegal to send migrants thousands of miles to a country where they do not want to live.

Starmer called the plan a “gimmick” and canceled it shortly after he was elected in July. Britain paid Rwanda hundreds of millions of pounds for the scheme under an agreement the two countries signed in 2022, without any deportations taking place.

On Tuesday, Brazilian police officer Valdecy Urquiza is expected to be appointed the new general secretary of Interpol, replacing Germany’s Jürgen Stock. He will be the first leader of the Lyon, France-based organization not from Europe or the United States.

Interpol, that celebrated its centenary last yearhelps national police forces communicate with each other and track suspects and criminals in areas such as counter-terrorism, financial crime, child pornography, cybercrime and organized crime.

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