Key Highlights :
The UK government is taking a proactive approach to tackling the growing people-smuggling crisis in North Africa, with National Crime Agency (NCA) officers reportedly set to join forces with security forces in the region. The news comes as immigration minister Robert Jenrick prepares to travel to North Africa and Europe to discuss the “shared global challenge of organised immigration crime”.
The Italian Government has predicted up to 400,000 migrants will seek to travel to Europe through Italy this summer, while record numbers of people crossed the English Channel last year in small boats. The Home Office has reported that less than 7,000 have been detected making the journey so far in 2023.
In response to the situation, the Home Office is launching an ad campaign aimed at deterring Albanian nationals from arriving in the UK in small boats. The campaign, 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. It will also aim to “bust the myths of organised crime gangs” who use social media to encourage people to take dangerous routes to the UK.
The Home Office has not revealed how much the publicity drive is expected to cost. However, the Government’s Illegal Migration Bill is expected to cut the daily £5.5 million cost of housing migrants who make it to the UK by sending asylum seekers who arrive in Britain via unauthorised routes back home or to a third country such as Rwanda.
Critics of the bill, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, have argued that it is both unworkable and “morally unacceptable”. Meanwhile, 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”.
It remains to be seen how effective the UK’s response to the people-smuggling crisis in North Africa will be. However, it’s clear that the government is taking the situation seriously and is committed to doing whatever it can to tackle the issue and protect those who are vulnerable to exploitation.