UK police officers are to be tasked with breaking up people-smuggling gangs alongside security forces in North African countries, it has been reported.
According to the newspaper, the Italian government has predicted up to 400,000 migrants will seek to travel to Europe through Italy this summer.
Record numbers of people crossed the English Channel last year in small boats.
Less than 7,000 have been detected making the journey so far in 2023, according to latest Home Office figures.
When asked about the reports on Monday, an NCA spokesperson told The Epoch Times: “This is something for the Home Office to comment on.”
The Home Office has been contacted for comment.
Small Boats
Before leaving the UK for the tour, Jenrick told The Times of London: “We’re taking the fight to the people-smuggling gangs upstream to help prevent dangerous and unnecessary journeys long before migrants are within reach of the UK. Just as we’ve deepened diplomatic and security cooperation on illegal migration with France, Italy and Albania, we are working to enhance our cooperation with other key transit and source countries for migration to tackle this shared challenge.”He added: “It is right that we use all the assets of the state to disrupt, degrade and deny gangs at source.”
The publicity drive, which will run on Facebook and Instagram from next week, will send the message that people “face being detained and removed” if they make the journey.
Opposition critics and charities have branded the campaign a “gimmick”, with Labour accusing the government of “tinkering at the edges” of an asylum system “in chaos.”
The Home Office would not say how much the publicity drive is expected to cost.
The government’s Illegal Migration Bill aims to send asylum seekers who arrive in Britain via unauthorised routes back home or to a third country such as Rwanda.
The bill, currently before the House of Lords, has been attacked by critics including the Archbishop of Canterbury who argue that it is both unworkable and “morally unacceptable”.
‘Millions’ Displaced
In a debate on the legislation earlier this month, peers were told that due to climate change and conflict, millions more people were expected to be displaced from their home countries, including Africa.Conservative peer Lord Swire told the house on May 10 that “whole swathes of sub-Saharan Africa will become uninhabitable” if climate change gets worse.
“We talk about the difference between internally displaced people and displaced people; I submit that, if they cannot live somewhere, soon those internally displaced people will have to seek lives elsewhere, creating huge migratory pressures,” he said.
“The result of all this is that it is incumbent on us to have a fair and enforceable migration policy.”
He said that he had yet to hear any “credible, working alternative” from those criticising the bill to deal with the issues.
Swire added: “We are left with a policy that is fair neither to those already here nor to those seeking to come here through legal channels. It is manifestly not fair to anyone.”
Offering his support for the legislation, the Tory peer said that “for too long” successive governments have “shirked our responsibilities” by failing to enact a “fair and enforceable” policy on asylum and migration.
He added: “Difficult and controversial though aspects of this bill certainly are, it is a positive move to address this. I therefore welcome the bill and will support it.”
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