Border Security Command ‘gearing up’ as small boat Channel crossings top 19,000

Yvette Cooper has signalled she will press ahead with the previous government’s plan to reopen two immigration centres in a bid to achieve the highest rate of removals since Theresa May’s premiership.

The Home Secretary announced the Border Security Command “is gearing up” after the number of migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats topped 19,000 this year so far.

In addition to new beds at immigration removals centres near Oxford and Portsmouth, Ms Cooper will front plans to boost staffing at the National Crime Agency (NCA), the UK-wide body which has around 70 active investigations into people smuggling and trafficking groups.

Conservative shadow home secretary James Cleverly accused new ministers of failing to “get a grip” on cross-Channel migration between France and England’s South Coast over the weekend.

A Labour source said Mr Cleverly’s comments were “laughable” and said their party is “replacing Tory gimmick with real grip”.

Ms Cooper said: “Our new Border Security Command is already gearing up, with new staff being urgently recruited and additional staff already stationed across Europe.”

The unit is designed to draw together work of different intelligence agencies, police, Immigration Enforcement and Border Force.

Ms Cooper said new officials would “work with European enforcement agencies to find every route in to smashing the criminal smuggling gangs organising dangerous boat crossings which undermine our border security and put lives at risk”.

The Home Secretary also said: “By increasing enforcement capabilities and returns, we will establish a system that is better controlled and managed, in place of the chaos that has blighted the system for far too long.”

The Labour Government has pledged “290 added immigration removals” beds at Campsfield House in Kidlington, Oxfordshire and Haslar in Gosport, Hampshire – centres which had previously closed down in 2019 and 2015.

Documents lodged with Cherwell District Council during the Conservative administration, which ended in July, proposed Campsfield House would reopen with an increased capacity of 400 detainees, up from 160, while Gosport Borough Council greenlit demolition work at Haslar ahead of refurbishment earlier this year.

Staff would be redeployed to help drive an increase in returns.

According to the Home Office, ministers have set their sights on achieving over the next six months “the highest rate of removals of those with no right to be here, including failed asylum seekers” since 2018.

The previous Conservative government spent around £700 million on its flagship Rwanda scheme before the General Election earlier this year, according to Labour ministers’ figures unveiled in July.

The programme, to remove some people who had arrived in England by small boat to east Africa, agreed in a treaty between London and Kigali, was intended as a deterrent.

Just four volunteers arrived in Rwanda and Sir Keir Starmer declared the scheme “dead and buried” within two days after he became Prime Minister.

The Home Office further pledged intelligence-led business targeting as part of the package, to crack down on firms which employ people who do not have the right to work in the UK.

Up to 100 new specialists could help work on around 70 NCA investigations into smuggling and trafficking networks.

NCA director general of operations Rob Jones said: “Tackling organised immigration crime remains a key priority for the NCA and we are dedicating more effort and resource than ever before.

“These extra officers will play a key role in that, with the NCA currently leading around 70 investigations into the highest harm people smuggling and trafficking groups.

“Taking on these dangerous and exploitative gangs requires international co-operation and we continue to further enhance our already strong relationship with Europol and other law enforcement partners.

“We are determined to do all we can to disrupt and dismantle these networks, whether they are operating in the UK or overseas.”

Home Office figures showed 206 migrants crossed the English Channel in three boats on Monday, which has taken the 2024 provisional total crossings to 19,294.

This is a 10% increase on the figure recorded last year, which was 17,620.

But the latest figure is 10% down on 2022, when 21,344 crossings were recorded in the same period.

“This new Government must urgently take action to get a grip on these ever rising crossing numbers,” Mr Cleverly said on the weekend.

“When Labour ditched our deterrent (the Rwanda plan) they sent a dangerous signal to the people smugglers that they were not willing to take the tough action necessary to control our borders, and the smugglers are reaping the benefits.”

A Labour source hit back: “For the former home secretary to be urging us to ‘get a grip’ given the chaotic inheritance they left is laughable.

“He oversaw waste and failure on a mammoth scale, not to mention the record-high number of crossings in the first six months of the year.

“We are replacing Tory gimmick with real grip and a serious plan to fix the chaos.”

Care4Calais chief executive Steve Smith said: “The new Government continuing to invest in border security rather than workable solutions is repeating the mistakes of the last government.

“The evidence shows that these so-called deterrents don’t work. They do nothing to reduce Channel crossings, they just force people to take greater risks to do so.

“The only way to stop crossings, and to save lives, is to create safe routes for people to claim asylum in the UK. That’s what the new Government should be focusing on.”

James Wilson, director of Detention Action, said: “The government’s proposal to hold even more people in detention in the UK is a disappointing step away from a fairer and more humane immigration system.

“Especially following recent events, it is vital that government policy and language recognises the dignity and humanity of migrants.

“Immigration detention centres are a hidden space where people are locked in small cells for up to 12 hours a day and frequently denied legal support and appropriate medical care. The use of immigration detention is inherently damaging to people’s mental health, especially because people are detained without a fixed time limit.”

He continued: “Immigration detention is also a fundamentally inefficient way to resolve people’s immigration cases. From 2023 to 2024, 60% of people leaving detention were released on immigration bail or granted permission to remain in the UK.

“Given the immense cost of immigration detention to both the welfare of people detained and the public purse, we urge the government to reconsider their proposal.”