MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th August, 2023) The authorities of the United Kingdom and Turkey have reached an agreement to tackle illegal migration by targeting people-smuggling gangs using small boats to transfer people across the English Channel, The Telegraph reported on Tuesday, citing UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman.
Under the agreement, the Turkish police will set up a new operations center, backed by 3 million Pounds ($3.8 million) in UK government funds, to help coordinate joint operations to cut off the supply of boats and enhance the exchange of intelligence on the people-smuggling gangs between border forces and police of the UK and Turkey, the report said. The UK is also considering deploying more officers to Turkey.
Braverman is also working on an agreement with Turkey to speed up the deportation of Turkish migrants, illegally arriving in the UK in small boats, the media reported. London is also in talks with Germany to seize hundreds of dinghies stored by gangs in Germany before being used to smuggle people, the report said.
The media cited the UK National Crime Agency as saying that the majority of small boats for people-smuggling, from 80% to 90%, are being constructed in Turkey and then transported to Germany via Bulgaria for storage before being dispatched to the French coastline.
Over 1,300 migrants from Turkey arrived in the UK via the English Channel since the start of 2023, an over tenfold increase in arrivals, the report said.
Illegal migration has been a pressing issue for the UK for years and only intensified after the country left the European Union in 2020. The total number of migrants who entered the UK in 2022 was over 44,000.
