New deals to crack down on migrant smugglers will be signed with three Balkan countries tomorrow, Sir Keir Starmer has confirmed.
The Prime Minister will finalise agreements for closer co-operation with Serbia, North Macedonia and Kosovo – which all lie on key trafficking routes to Britain and western Europe.
A No10 spokesman said the deals would ‘increase intelligence sharing, expertise and co-operation’ in a bid to smash organised crime gangs behind the small boats crisis.
The PM will also press for a ‘major upgrade in international co-operation’ between the UK and Europe when he attends the European Political Community (EPC) meeting in Budapest, Hungary, today THU.
Labour scrapped the previous Tory government’s Rwanda asylum deal as soon as it entered office in July, and claims it will tackle small boats by boosting border teams and working more closely with other European countries.
However, the number of migrants to have reached Britain so far this year – at 31,535 – is up 18 per cent on the same period in 2023, including 17,961 since the election.
The PM said: ‘There is a criminal empire operating on our continent, exacting a horrendous human toll and undermining our national security.
‘Backed by our new Border Security Command, the UK will be at the heart of the efforts to end the scourge of organised immigration crime – but we cannot do it in isolation.
‘We need to go further and faster, alongside our international partners, and take the fight directly to the heart of these vile people smuggling networks.
‘I will be making this the central feature of my discussions at the EPC meeting today.’
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: ‘Our work with our partners in the Western Balkans is absolutely key to dismantling the criminal networks that orchestrate the exploitation of vulnerable people for financial gain.
‘Working more closely with Serbia, North Macedonia and Kosovo we will share information and intelligence, and work across borders to map out what is happening and where, to break the business models of these unscrupulous gangs at source.
‘Through our intensified work, criminals will soon realise they have nowhere to hide.’
It came as French authorities discovered two bodies – thought to have belonged to small boat migrants – adrift in the Channel.
A further body was found on a beach in Calais yesterday WEDS, according to French media reports.
Boulogne-sur-Mer public prosecutor’s office has launched an investigation.
Kent Police said another body was pulled from the Channel as officers were called to Dover lifeboat station on Tuesday.
The circumstances of the man’s death were unclear, and an investigation is underway.
At least 60 migrants are thought to have tragically died in the Channel this year – already the most deadly on record.
More than 50 migrants were rescued in the Channel after a dinghy got into difficulty when its engine failed off the coast of Audresselles, northern France, overnight into Tuesday.