Labour calls for new serious crime strategy and end to ‘free pass’ for people smugglers as conviction rate drops 36%
28 July 2023, 00:07
Labour has urged the government to replace their 'outdated' serious crime strategy to cut down on the amount of smuggling gangs and people traffickers.
The party is calling for a new and serious crime strategy to replace the 2018 plan currently in place amid the rise in small boat crossings.
It comes after Labour said convictions of criminal people smuggling have fallen 36% since Labour were last in government.
Wheres the conviction rate for all forms of illegal entry to England and Wales fell by 12 percentage points between 2010 and 2022.
Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “Criminal smuggling gangs have been allowed to take hold along our border, yet the Conservative government has repeatedly failed to take the action needed against them."
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She continued: "Ministers' obsession with announcing new headline-grabbing gimmicks, which then fail to deliver, has given gangs of criminals making millions of pounds a licence to operate.
"The Conservatives' failed approach has given a free pass to smuggler and trafficking gangs who are undermining our border security and putting lives at risk with small boat crossings."
In the current strategy there is no mention of “Channel crossings” and lacks clear guidance for the National Crime Agency or regional organised crime unit, Labour said.
More than 14,500 migrants have arrived in the UK so far this year via the Channel, Home Office data shows.
Ms Cooper said Labour would “redirect money being spent on the Tories' failing Rwanda scheme to relentlessly target these criminal smuggling gangs” as well as backing a new cross-border police unit.
