Yvette Cooper pours extra £100m into efforts to smash people-smuggling gangs
Government commits extra £100m to stopping small boat crossings
- The UK government has announced an additional £100 million investment to tackle illegal migration and reduce small boat crossings.
- The funding will enable the recruitment of up to 300 more National Crime Agency officers and provide new technology for intelligence gathering on people-smuggling gangs.
- It will also support the 'one in, one out' returns agreement with France and fund interventions in key transit countries across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.
- New measures include a proposed five-year prison sentence for individuals advertising illegal Channel crossings or fake passports online.
- The announcement follows record numbers of Channel crossings, with 25,000 arrivals recorded so far this year.