Fears intensify the Channel migrant crisis is getting worse (Image: Getty)
British detectives warned people smugglers “our reach is global” after four suspected traffickers were arrested in war-torn Libya.
A Syrian suspected of transporting migrants across the central Mediterranean in fibreglass boats was arrested in “fragile fibreglass boats”.
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He is believed to be part of a Syrian smuggling network believed to have moved at least two thousand people into Europe.
Evidence found on his phone suggested the end destination for some of those smuggled would have been the UK.
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Libya is a key hug for migrant smugglers (Image: Getty)
It followed the arrest on 10 March of a second suspected people smuggler, detained in the north east coastal town of Tobruk. He was identified by the NCA as being implicated in the smuggling of migrants of various nationalities into Greece.
And earlier this year in January a Sudanese national was arrested in the north western city of Sabratha. At the time of his detention by local authorities he was in charge of 11 Iraqi Kurdish migrants who were due to be transported into Europe.
Police in Sabratha also detained a Syrian national suspected of arranging the transportation of around 400 migrants. He’s alleged to have been part of a network involved in the large-scale smuggling of people in boats.
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NCA International Deputy Director Rick Jones said: “The fight against organised immigration crime is not limited to the English Channel. We are working to target, disrupt and dismantle these criminal networks wherever they operate, in source countries and in transit countries.
“To do that we need to co-operate with our international partners, and these arrests in Libya demonstrate that co-operation is bearing fruit. We are grateful for the support of the Libyan authorities in this work.
“The criminals involved in this trade don’t care about human life and think nothing of putting hundreds of people at a time into ramshackle boats completely unfit for the purpose of long sea crossings.
“While those arrested in these operations are suspected of moving migrants across the Mediterranean, there is no doubt that some of those smuggled would likely have ended up risking their lives again trying to cross the Channel too.
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“I hope these arrests, like those we recently supported in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, send out a message to others involved that no matter where they are, they are not untouchable. Our reach is global and they cannot act with impunity.”
Baroness Chapman of Darlington, FCDO Minister responsible for Irregular Migration said: “Working with other countries is vital to tackle this vile trade – stopping people being trafficked across the world at huge risk to their lives and securing our borders at home.
“My message to the people smugglers is clear: wherever you are in the world, we are working with international partners to bring you to justice through joint operations like this."
More than 60,000 migrants could cross the Channel this year, think-tank Migration Watch warned. More than 6,600 migrants have crossed the Channel so far this year. This includes 4,586 in March – the highest figure ever recorded in the first six months of a calendar year.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer used an immigration summit in London to urge more than 40 countries to do more to tackle smuggler supply lines and cash flows.
French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said returning asylum seekers to France would “send a clear message” that could act as a deterrent to those considering risking their lives. It marks a significant positional shift in Paris, which has previously refused to consider a bilateral migrant deal.
French President Emmanuel Macron has insisted Britain must strike a returns deal with the EU – something the Government has so far refused to do.
Mr Retailleau said: “I do think that there must be an agreement that we can come to, a bilateral agreement between governments.
“Because we see many of those who land on British soil don’t come back. Even when one has crossed the Channel, if one is sent back that will send a clear message.”
French police could start intercepting Channel migrant boats at the end of May, Home Office insiders believe.
Sources believe this will begin when a new specialist policing unit trained in tackling public disorder starts patrolling the coastline.
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Mr Retailleau added: “We have to deal with the crossings. Up until now, we considered it to be a French doctrine that we would save people on the seas — but that we would take no risk whatsoever.
"So we would accompany the people on the boats. I’ve seen a number of videos where the taxi boats come close to the coast to pick up the migrants in water that’s not very deep, and I think that our gendarmes cannot intervene.
"We need to change that doctrine of intervention.”