UK to take fight against people smugglers directly to Iraq

Human trafficking from northern France to Britain is now dominated by gangs from Iraqi Kurdistan

People board a smuggler's boat in an attempt to cross the English Channel in northern France. AFP

Officers from the UK will soon be working in Iraq in a bid to tackle people-smuggling gangs operating in the English Channel, as part of a package of measures announced by Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday.

Social media campaigns aimed at Iraqi citizens to deter them from attempting to cross the waterway will also be used in efforts to stop them from entering the UK illegally.

Mr Starmer used the opening of the Interpol general assembly in Glasgow to tackle “the vile people smugglers” who preyed on the “desperation, misery and hope” to make money from migrants and asylum seekers.

The Prime Minister announced the new Border Security Command (BSC), set up to tackle the so-called small boat crossings, would receive an additional £75 million ($97.4 million) of funding on top of the of same figure already committed.

Iraqi-Kurdish people smuggler Barzan Majeed. Photo: National Crime Agency

Part of the funds will go towards paying for British officers to be deployed in Iraq, whose citizens make up a large proportion of those who pay to cross the English Channel in small boats.

Gangs from Iraqi Kurdistan have come to dominate people smuggling in recent years and one of the key players, Barzan Majeed, known as Scorpion, was this year detained in Sulaymaniyah, Iraq. He had fled there after being sentenced to 10 years in jail by a court in Belgium.

The Prime Minister’s spokesman told The National the officers would be working in an international capacity to tackle the problem at source.

“We’ve announced new investment, new intelligence officers and new international liaison officers who I can confirm are going to work beyond European borders," he said. "We’ve also announced further investment into Interpol’s own global operations as well.”

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper with police officers at the Interpol general assembly in Glasgow on Monday. AFP

So far this year, 31,094 people have been detected crossing the Channel in small boats, according to Home Office data. This is 16 per cent higher than the 26,699 arrivals who had arrived by this time last year but 22 per cent lower than the 39,929 arrivals at this stage in 2022.

Adverts on social media will seek to explain that the reality of living in the UK illegally means no access to work, benefits or public services.

The aim is to counter the picture of life in Britain painted by people smugglers in a bit to attract migrants to use their services.

The government's plan also features working with social media platforms and internet providers to remove harmful content promoting illegal migration services or advertising fake job opportunities.

Ahead of the opening of the event, Mr Starmer outlined how criminal people-smuggling operations run “from the money markets in Kabul through to the Kurdish region of Iraq”, across Europe and into Britain.

Addressing the conference, he said it was his “personal mission to smash the people-smuggling gangs” that “should be viewed as a global security threat similar to terrorism”.

“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”, which he said will become an elite organisation.

The BSC will have 300 staff to tackle boat crossings and other forms of people smuggling, as well as 100 specialist investigators from the National Crime Agency (NCA).

“Illegal migration is, without question, a massive driver of global insecurity," Mr Starmer said. "There is nothing progressive about turning a blind eye as men, women and children die in the Channel.

“You don’t advance the cause of global justice – or compassion for those individuals – to pretend that there is.”