Keir Starmer Pledges to Double Border Funding to Tackle Channel Crossings

In order to reduce the number of migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats, Prime Minister Keir Starmer has announced that he will double the funding for the UK’s border security agency and to fight people-smuggling gangs with the same energy as terror networks.

Speaking to the international police community on Monday at an Interpol summit, Starmer highlighted that gangs are responsible for illegal migration and represent a serious threat to international security. He argues that,  “the world needs to wake up to the severity of this challenge. we’re taking our approach to counterterrorism, which we know works and applying it to the gangs.”

Starmer’s plan calls for better international coordination, more collaboration between law enforcement organisations and ambiguous “enhanced” police powers.

In order to finance 100 specialised investigators and high-tech monitoring, the UK Border Security Command’s budget would rise from 75 million pounds ($97 million) to 150 million pounds ($194 million) over two years.

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Starmer’s Labour administration, like past governments, is battling to prevent thousands of people from fleeing France due to poverty and conflict. These people have been trying to get to the UK securely by crossing in packed boats.

This year, more than 31,000 migrants made this risky trek, surpassing the tally from 2023 but falling short of the numbers observed in 2022.

2024 is the worst year since crossings increased in 2018, according to French officials who say at least 56 migrants have died this year.

Starmer, who is in charge of a centre-left government made headlines in September when he met with Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni and praised her nationalist government’s “remarkable” efforts to cut down on boat crossings of migrants.

He stated that “there’s nothing progressive about turning a blind eye as men, women and children die in the Channel.”