Starmer announces tech-enabled crackdown on people smuggling
UK prime minister Keir Starmer has committed an extra £75m to the recently established Border Security Command (BSC) to fund its acquisition and use of “state-of-the-art surveillance equipment”, as part of a wider clampdown on the “national security threat” of people smuggling gangs.
Speaking at the Interpol general assembly in Glasgow on Monday 4 November, Starmer said that the UK government will apply a counter-terrorism approach to border security in an attempt to end the “fragmentation” between policing, Border Force and intelligence agencies.
“The world needs to wake up to the severity of this challenge. I was elected to deliver security for the British people. And strong borders are a part of that. But security doesn’t stop at our borders,” he said.
“There’s nothing progressive about turning a blind eye as men, women and children die in the Channel. This is a vile trade that must be stamped out – wherever it thrives. So, we’re taking our approach to counter-terrorism, which we know works, and applying it to the gangs, with our new Border Security Command.”
The new investment in border security builds on £75m the UK government previously committed to the BSC in September 2024, which focused on unlocking “sophisticated new technology and extra capabilities”, such as covert cameras, monitoring technologies, new intelligence units, and improving intelligence and information flows between law enforcement bodies.
This means the overall investment into the BSC – which was set up in July 2024 to coordinate the work of the National Crime Agency (NCA), intelligence agencies, police forces, Immigration Enforcement and Border Force – will be £150m over the next two years.
The government outlined the additional £75m investment into the BSC will be used to boost the NCA’s technology and capabilities, including through the delivery of “advanced data exploitation”, using technology to boost collaboration with European partners, and providing it with a further 100 specialist investigators and intelligence officers.
The funding will also see the creation of a specialist intelligence unit to “cohere intelligence flows from key police forces”, and provide the 300 new staff to the BSC itself.
“Our new Border Security Command, with the investment set out today, will mean a huge step change in the way we target these criminal gangs,” said home secretary Yvette Cooper. “People smugglers and traffickers operate in networks across borders, that’s why we have launched a major boost to our cooperation with international partners including other European countries, the G7 and Europol, and why we are so pleased to be hosting the Interpol conference on tackling international crime in Glasgow today.”
Speaking on BBC Breakfast after the BSC funding announcement, Cooper said: “We need to make progress as fast as possible because no one should be making these dangerous boat crossings”, adding that small boat crossings are “undermining Britain’s border security and putting lives at risk”.
Enforcement ‘will not end horrific trade’
However, some charities have criticised the government’s focus on enforcement, noting it could lead to desperate people taking more dangerous and deadly journeys. They suggested that, instead, the government should focus on creating safe and legal routes for refugees to enter the UK, which are currently extremely limited.
Enver Solomon, the chief executive of the Refugee Council, said: “The government must recognise that enforcement measures alone will not end this horrific trade. It must balance strong action against criminal networks with its commitment to uphold international rules that provide safety to those who need it most.”
Fizza Qureshi, CEO of the Migrants’ Rights Network, added that the UK government’s “focus on the intermediaries supporting sanctuary seekers to get to safety in the UK is just another attempt to deflect the UK’s refugee protection obligations”.
“Current legislation is already making people vulnerable to using intermediaries to get to the UK because they are refusing to offer safe routes for people of all nationalities,” said Qureshi. “Offering safe routes for all instead of focusing on invasive tech surveillance would reduce the need for anyone to have to use intermediaries to reach the UK, and eliminate the unnecessary investment in surveillance technologies that invade all of our privacies.”
A Parliamentary research briefing published 7 October 2024 noted while there are four broad categories of “safe and legal” routes to the UK, each has a distinct eligibility criteria, and not all of them grant the beneficiaries actual refugee status (which “means that only some people on the UK’s safe and legal entry pathways receive all the protections laid out in the 1951 Refugee Convention”).
It added: “The Labour government isn’t considering increasing safe and legal routes to the UK.”
As it stands, Amnesty International has said that the current immigration rules provide no safe or legal routes for someone to come to the UK for the purpose of claiming asylum, unless they are from Ukraine, Hong Kong or Afghanistan (and, in that case, have worked for the British government). While people are able to claim asylum from within the UK, the Home Office is explicit that it will not consider claims made from abroad.
Computer Weekly contacted the Home Office for comment, including about the criticisms that the UK government is focusing on enforcement over creating safe routes.
Asked in Parliament on 30 October 2024 about whether the government plans to introduce new safe and legal routes, undersecretary for migration and citizenship Seema Mlahotra said that these routes would continue to play an important role.
“This country will always do our bit alongside others to help those fleeing war and persecution, but we need a proper system where rules are enforced,” she said. “Our priority right now is the relocation of those who have been identified as eligible for resettlement under our resettlement schemes, and fixing the gaps in existing routes. That is why we have already taken steps to support the reunification of Afghan families under the [Afghan Citizen Resettlement Scheme] ACRS route.”
The Home Office said that 230 people crossed the English Channel in small boats on 31 October, bringing the total for that month to 5,417. The total for 2024 so far stands at 30,661. More than 50 people have died trying to cross the English Channel this year, the highest since figures were first recorded in 2018.
Ongoing border tech investment
In February 2024, the Home Office signed a data sharing and technology-collaboration agreement with EU border agency Frontex to crack down on small boats crossing the English Channel. Apart from improving both sides’ operational response through improved intelligence and information sharing, the agreement also promised closer collaboration on research and development (R&D) into technologies such as drones and airborne surveillance.
The Telegraph reported that the deal would also enable Border Force officers to access live intelligence mapping of migrants’ movements across Europe, giving UK authorities eyes over the entirety of the bloc’s external borders.
The previous UK government also repeatedly committed to making Channel crossings on small boats “unviable”, which it sought to achieve in part by making a range of surveillance capabilities available to border authorities.
The UK’s already-extensive surveillance capabilities in the English Channel – a stretch of water just 21 miles long – include the use unmanned aerial vehicles, manned aircraft such as planes or helicopters, artificial intelligence-powered satellites, and a variety of sensors and radars.
These technologies and the data they produce are often advertised as a way of monitoring and countering migrant crossings in the Channel.
Lawyers, human rights groups and migrant support organisations previously told Computer Weekly that while the various technologies deployed do have the capacity to protect people’s lives if used differently, they are currently used with the clear intention of deterring migrants from crossing – or helping to punish those who do.
A similar enforcement-focused approach is being adopted by other European countries, which are seeking increasingly hardline approaches to irregular migration. In early October 2024, for example, 17 European countries – including 14 European Union (EU) members – signed a letter demanding a tough “paradigm shift” on migration, arguing that governments “must be empowered” to carry out deportations “in full respect” of fundamental rights.
“People without the right to stay must be held accountable. A new legal basis must clearly define their obligations and duties,” said the countries in a letter to the European Commission. “Non-cooperation must have consequences and be sanctioned.”
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