Eagle: People-smuggling gangs must be stopped even with ‘whack-a-mole’ approach

Having to take a “whack-a-mole” approach to tackling people smuggling is no reason not to try and prevent criminal gangs, a Home Office minister has said.

Asked whether the Government’s plans on people smuggling go far enough and whether they have an approach akin to the fairground game, Dame Angela Eagle told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Just because you have to play whack-a-mole, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to take down organised immigration crime and disrupt the people that are putting people’s lives at risk in the Channel for huge amounts of money.”

She added: “It’s important that our new border security command works operationally across borders with our colleagues in Europe to disrupt cross-border smuggling and that’s what we’re going to do.”

The comments come as Germany pledged to tighten its law to make it easier to prosecute people smugglers enabling Channel crossings to Britain, as part of a new deal signed between the two countries on tackling immigration crime.

Berlin has confirmed plans to reform its legal framework to make it a clear criminal offence to “facilitate the smuggling of migrants to the UK” as part of the agreement, the Home Office said.

It said the move would give German prosecutors more tools to tackle the supply and storage of dangerous small boats.

Both countries have also committed to exchanging information that may help to remove migrant-smuggling content from social media platforms and tackle end-to-end routes of criminal smuggling networks as part of the deal.

It comes as the UK and Germany hosted the so-called Calais Group in London, at which ministers and police from the two countries, with France, Belgium and the Netherlands, gathered to discuss migration in Europe.

Delegates agreed a plan to tackle people smuggling gangs in 2025 at the meeting on Tuesday.

Nancy Faeser, German federal minister of the interior said: “We are now stepping up our joint action to fight the brutal activities of international smugglers.

“This is at the core of our joint action plan that we have agreed in London.

“It will help us end the inhumane activities of criminal migrant smuggling organisations.

“By cramming people into inflatable boats under threats of violence and sending them across the Channel, these organisations put human lives at risk.”

She said that “many of these crimes are planned in Germany” and the deal would help to counter “this unscrupulous business with even more resolve”.

Dame Angela had earlier said that she was “delighted” with the agreement, and told Times Radio: “We know that the smuggling gangs use Germany as a dropping-off point and an organisational point for a lot of their logistics.”

She added: “We are delighted that we’ve managed to get this new agreement on increased cooperation, increased sharing of intelligence and prosecutorial cooperation with the Germans, we think it will make a real difference.”