Labour‘s plan to smash the small boat gangs ‘won’t work’, Home Office insiders have claimed.
Civil servants at the department are said to be ‘underwhelmed’ by the Government’s proposals to tackling Channel crossings and reducing illegal migration to the UK.
It comes as nine different boats carrying 572 migrants were intercepted crossing the Channel on Saturday.
This bring the total number of migrants to arrive so far this year to 32,691 which is up 22 per cent on the same time last year (26,699) but still 18 per cent less than recorded by November 2022 (39,929).
Some in the Home Office have reportedly claimed ‘nobody’ understands how the new Border Security Command (BSC) – set up just days after Labour swept to power in July – will work and department officials are ‘underwhelmed’ by strategy outlined last week.
Experts have warned that smugglers will adjust to any changes and that demand for gangs’ services is not slowing, according to the i newspaper.
The damning revelations will heap further pressure on Labour to get a grip on the small boats crisis, which saw its busiest fornight on the Channel so far this year with the migrants reaching Britain since the new Government took office topping 18,000.
Home Office officials are ‘underwhelmed’ by Labour ‘s plans to tackle the small boats crisis
A group of migrants waiting to cross the Channel on the beach of Sandgatte in Calais, France on November 10
According to the i, there is ‘cynicism’ among department officials about whether the BSC, backed by £150m of funding from the Government, will prove to be any more successful than previous units operated under the Conservatives.
One Home Office official told the newspaper: ‘It’s fine for us to talk about targeting smugglers in the UK but there are a lot of people in Europe who have to get involved.
‘There are clearly political reasons about why they want to look tough on all this, but what is the impact actually going to be on the number of people arriving in the UK?’
The source added that the BSC was partly a ‘holding pen for people who didn’t have anything to do anymore because they got rid of the Rwanda policy’.
‘Nobody quite knows how it’s going to work,’ they added.
A former senior Government official described Labour’s plans as ‘pretty underwhelming’.
They told the i: ‘This ‘smash the gangs’ thing seems to be the only show in town, which I think is disappointing,’ he said.
Another look at migrants on a beach in Calais on Sunday morning on November 10
Migrants crowd a smuggler’s inflatable dinghy in an attempt to cross the English Channel on October 30
‘Surely when you’re looking at the problem, one of the things you’re looking at is why people are coming. If you don’t know what the reason is you can’t address it. Blaming the gangs might be answering the wrong question.’
Labour’s Border Security Command (BSC) – led by former police chief Martin Hewitt – was set up to ‘strengthen Britain’s border security and smash the criminal smuggling gangs making millions out of small boat crossings’.
But during the election campaign, Tory PM Rishi Sunak claimed that thousands of migrants were ‘queueing up; in Calais as they waited for an incoming Labour government that pledged to scrap the Conservatives’ Rwanda asylum deal.
In its manifesto, Labour promised to set up a returns and enforcement unit to fast-track removals to safe countries for people who do not have the right to stay here.
The latest crossings come as Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has entered into a new initiative to intercept criminal gangs smuggling migrants through the western Balkans as part of efforts to bring down the number of small boat crossings.
Sir Keir announced deals to boost intelligence-sharing, expertise and co-operation with Serbia, North Macedonia and Kosovo at a meeting of the European Political Community in Budapest, Hungary, on Thursday.
On Tuesday and Wednesday four bodies were discovered in the water off the coast of Calais, the French coastguard said.
Kent Police also said the body of a man was pulled from the Channel on Tuesday as officers were called to Dover lifeboat station.
Investigations have been launched into the deaths and authorities are yet to confirm whether those who died were migrants.
Some 50 people have died while trying to cross the Channel this year, according to incidents recorded by the French coastguard, which do not include the most recent deaths.
Sir Keir also vowed the Government would ‘treat people smugglers like terrorists’ as he announced an extra £75million for his border security command during a speech at the Interpol general assembly in Glasgow on Monday.
A Home Office spokesman said: ‘We all want to end dangerous small boat crossings, which threaten lives and undermine our border security.
‘Our new Border Security Command will strengthen our global partnerships and enhance our efforts to investigate, arrest, and prosecute these evil criminals. We will stop at nothing to dismantle their business models and bring them to justice.’
