Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said she was “laser-light focused” and will do “whatever it takes” to secure the country’s border, as she toured the National Crime Agency’s (NCA) offices in Stratford, east London.
Speaking to reporters on Sunday afternoon, Ms Mahmood said: “I think the most important thing that people need to hear from their Home Secretary is that I’m doing whatever it takes to secure our border.”
“And that is what I’ve been absolutely laser-light focused on from the moment I became the Home Secretary, taking all of the measures that I know are needed in order to secure our border.”
Government says work is starting to show results
Ms Mahmood said the Government’s work to tackle small boat crossings was beginning to “bear fruit” although she acknowledged further reforms were needed.
“It’s why I’m pursuing immigration reform to address the pull factors that draw people into boats in the Channel,” she said. “I want to change the calculus. I want them to change their mind about whether they get on the boat in the first place.”
Removals up 41% since 2024
Although removals are up 41% since Labour took power in 2024, with more than 70,000 deportations, she said the Government “will go further” on this issue and acknowledged public concern.
“I share their concern every time they see images of people crossing the Channel,” Ms Mahmood said.
Asked about why 2,000 people had crossed the Channel in small boats since Prime Minister Andy Burnham took office on July 20, Ms Mahmood said the NCA’s work was having an “impact”.
“That’s why we’re doubling the number of NCA officers because we know that this is the work we need to do in order to secure our border,” she said.
She also said the number of deaths of people crossing the Channel had been “normalised”. She said four migrants had died trying to cross the Channel in the last few days, describing each of those deaths as a “tragedy”.
NCA: smugglers becoming desperate
Rob Jones, director-general of operations at the NCA, said one of the challenges facing the agency is that the gangs involved in people smuggling are “ruthless”.
“They have no rules. They don’t care about the migrants, and they are exploiting them at scale,” Mr Jones said.
He said another obstacle was that many of the criminal networks involved in people smuggling are based outside the UK.
“That means that we can’t necessarily take direct action in the UK, and we need partners to do that with us,” he said. “And that’s what we’re much better at now, and we’re achieving much stronger results with partners overseas working with us internationally to prevent this.”
Asked if smugglers were getting better at evading detection, Mr Jones said: “I wouldn’t say they’re getting smarter. I think they’re getting desperate.”
