UK redirects Rwanda plan cash to combat people smuggling

THE £75 million earmarked by the last Tory government to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda will be now used to pay for new technology and staff to tackle people-smuggling gangs, the Home Office said on Tuesday (17).

The new Labour government, elected by a landslide in July, scrapped the Tories' controversial plan calling it an expensive "gimmick".

Instead, prime minister Keir Starmer has promised to "smash the gangs" who profit from migrants wanting to cross the Channel from northern France, often with deadly consequences.

On Sunday (15), eight people died when their overcrowded vessel capsized off the French coast while trying to cross the busy shipping lane, less than two weeks after at least 12 others lost their lives.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said up to £75m of cash from the Tories' Rwanda scheme would now be invested in covert surveillance equipment to boost evidence gathering for eventual prosecutions of gang ringleaders.

It will also fund more border security staff and 100 more specialist investigators at the National Crime Agency, as part of a more joined-up approach among law enforcement to tackling the issue.

"State of the art technology and enhanced intelligence capabilities will ensure we are using every tool at our disposal to dismantle this vile trade," Cooper said in a statement.

The government says it wants to tackle the problem "upstream", cooperating with its closest neighbours in mainland Europe to prevent more migrants risking their lives on flimsy craft.

It has already increased the number of British officers based at Europol to support European efforts at dismantling organised people-smuggling networks.

Starmer was in Rome on Monday (16) to discuss Italy's efforts to cut irregular migration, including plans to operate Italian-run migrant centres in Albania.

Cooper in July called the Tories' Rwanda scheme "the most shocking waste of taxpayers' money I have ever seen", and that it had only seen four people relocated, all of them voluntarily.

Some £700m had been spent on the scheme and the government had planned to spend more than £10 billion in total, she told parliament.

(AFP)