UK to work with France to ‘break link’ between migrants and people-smugglers
The UK is set to work with France to ‘break the business model’ of people-smuggling and bring gangs to justice, Home Secretary Priti Patel has said this afternoon.
It follows 27 people dying at sea yesterday, while making the treacherous crossing between France and the UK. The number includes seven women, one of whom was pregnant, and three children.
Patel said that while information is still being gathered about the situation in France, work was being done to better collaborate with France on stopping “vile people-smuggling gangs”.
“These journeys across the Channel are absolutely unnecessary,” the Home Secretary added, after she called the incident a shock but no surprise.
It is the worst-ever incident involving migrants attempting to reach the UK via the Crossing, according to French maritime authorities.
Opposition leader Keir Starmer said that, as a former prosecutor, he failed to be persuaded that the five people arrested for people-smuggling yesterday, could not have happened a week prior to the tragic incident.
Starmer added that people-smugglers have a “real hold” on desperate migrants, more so than local authorities, and that joint work with the French is needed to “break the link” between them and criminal gangs.
Shadow Home Secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds called the incident a “sobering moment for our country, for France, and the international community”.
Around 80m people in the world are currently displaced.