Labour’s illegal migration summit is more empty posturing and won’t change a thing

The prime minister’s much-publicised conference on people-smuggling is full of grand rhetoric and high-profile attendees, writes May Bulman. But behind the spectacle lies a stark reality: there is little substance and very little that is new

Another week, another announcement from the government on a new initiative to tackle “illegal migration”.

This time, Labour proudly announced it is hosting a “major international summit” today, which dozens of countries – including the US, Vietnam, Iraq and France – will attend in order to, apparently, “unite behind a new approach to dismantling people-smuggling gangs”.

It certainly sounds decisive and new. Hosting more than 40 governments from around the world, as well as representatives from Meta, X (Twitter) and TikTok, to discuss how to tackle irregular migration is something no previous UK government has come up with. By hosting it in the grandiose Lancaster House, with its high ceilings, gold wall carvings and splendid chandeliers, Labour is clearly seeking to generate a feeling of magnitude around the summit and its attendees.

But in reality, when you look through the expansive guest list and the opulence surrounding the event, there is little substance and hardly anything new in terms of approach.

Keir Starmer said he was ‘angry’ about the scale of illegal migration at the Organised Immigration Crime Summit (PA)

It should first be noted that while this is the first time a UK government has hosted such an event, such large meetings of governments and technology companies to discuss ways of tackling irregular migration are nothing new. Only last week, the annual World Border Security Congress, which each year brings together policymakers from across the globe, including the UK, and tech companies to discuss border security and migration management, took place in Madrid with hundreds in attendance. Such gatherings have been happening for years and haven’t proven to lead to any changes in migration flows.

While the government is quick to claim that the summit will see countries “unite behind a new approach” to tackling people-smuggling activities, it is unclear what this “new approach” is. It seems the mantra surrounding the summit is that there must be effective cooperation between countries, but such cooperation has been taking place for a while now with no proven impact on the number of arrivals.

One thing that is relatively new is Labour’s announcement today that the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) will start to help prosecutors in other countries bring people-smugglers to justice – an emulation of the approach Keir Starmer took to combat international Islamist terrorism when he led the CPS as director of public prosecutions. The prime minister says he believes organised immigration crime should be treated “in the same way” as terrorism.

It isn’t the first time Starmer has said this, and whether he is right about it is another question. The reality is that the two crimes are completely different, not to mention the fact that people-smuggling is a business activity with huge demand driving it, while terrorism is committed by individuals and groups driven by ideology. To think that approaching them in the same way will work is an oversimplification of both issues and wishful thinking.

Perhaps most importantly, it must be noted that nowhere in the fanfare around this summit is there any mention of the fact that many of the men, women and children who are crossing borders irregularly have legitimate reasons for fleeing their countries of origin and claiming asylum in the UK or other European countries. The vast majority of them have no other way of doing so other than by paying the people-smugglers – the very smugglers the UK and other countries are so desperate to take down. The number of safe and legal routes to Western countries available to refugees has plummeted in recent years, meaning smugglers are, for many, the only option.

Starmer’s small reference to those making the crossing in his opening of the summit this morning was to say that they are “vulnerable people being ruthlessly exploited by vile gangs”. But as long as there are no other viable routes to escaping to safety, these gangs will be their only option – and it is wishful thinking to believe that any “landmark summit” to exchange ideas about tough measures to combat smuggling activities will come anywhere close to changing this.