Police chief warns of growing people smuggling threat as Channel crossings rise

Interpol’s Richard Chambers said people smuggling was a crime that was ‘developing fast’.

The UK was among 116 countries and territories to take part in Interpol’s week-long Operation Liberterra II, resulting in 2,517 arrests being made around the globe (Gareth Fuller/PA) (PA Wire)

The scale of Channel crossings is “significant” amid the “growing” threat from people smuggling, a police chief warned after the largest ever worldwide operation of its kind saw thousands of arrests.

The UK was among 116 countries and territories to take part in Interpol’s week-long Operation Liberterra II, resulting in 2,517 arrests being made around the globe.

Some 3,222 potential victims of human trafficking were rescued and 17,793 irregular migrants also identified as part of raids carried out at the end of September and beginning of October.

The UK has a very significant role to play in this effort

Richard Chambers

The results of the operation emerged after Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer vowed the Government would “treat people smugglers like terrorists” while announcing an extra £75 million for his border security command during a speech at the Interpol general assembly in Glasgow.

Richard Chambers, the law enforcement agency’s director of organised and emerging crime, told the PA news agency “everyone” is concerned about the sheer number of migrants crossing the Channel to the UK, describing the more than 31,000 who have made the journey so far this year as “significant”.

Asked how long it would take to see such enforcement activity leading to fewer crossings, he said: “That is a really hard question to answer.”

Interpol will “absolutely be playing our role to make that difference. But it’s not up to us alone.

“It’s not going to happen overnight, but it’s going to continue to be a massive coordinated effort by many partners”.

Operation Liberterra II “told us that this particular crime type is very diverse. It’s developing. It’s developing fast. It’s a growing issue.”

The problem is “more than any one country”, he said as he told how the operation shone the “spotlight on the threat that human trafficking presents to the globe”.

Speaking from the general assembly on Wednesday, he said: “We heard from the UK Prime Minister earlier this week about how important this issue is. So the UK has a very significant role to play in this effort.”

Sir Keir “made a very clear statement around the priority that his Government places upon this issue, and that comes with our full support to assist law enforcement and jurisdictions globally to follow with more operations”, he added.

During the operation, Tunisian authorities intercepted 27 people, including 21 children, who were trying to travel to the UK “under the pretence of a language study trip”, Interpol said.

This led to three suspects being arrested after the National Crime Agency (NCA) found them living in the UK. They are now facing prosecution for smuggling charges.

In total nine people were arrested in the UK as part of the operation as the NCA sought out suspects wanted in Belgium, Germany, France and Romania for people smuggling, human trafficking and modern slavery offences.

Raids took place in Lancashire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire and Kent, the NCA said.

This included a 32-year-old Syrian man arrested in Nottingham, who was wanted by Romanian authorities for “illegally transporting migrants from Bulgaria to Romania, for onward travel to the Netherlands”.

Another suspect was detained by police in Northern Ireland.

Extradition proceedings are now taking place for all nine suspects.

Rick Jones, from the NCA, said the operation is a “prime example of our commitment to working closely and effectively with international partners to tackle people smuggling and human trafficking.”

One of the aims of Operation Liberterra II was to “better understand the threat presented globally. And the results demonstrate the significance of what is, without doubt, a growing threat”, Mr Chambers said, adding that he was “blown away” by the sheer scale of the problem given the number of potential victims that were identified as well as the number of the irregular migrants and arrests made.

Growing tensions around the world “fuel a lot of this activity because the reality is, people seek a better place of safety”, he said, adding: “Organised crime groups exploit that. They exploit those vulnerabilities, and they don’t care about the consequences.”

There will be more operations of this scale to follow because Interpol is hearing “more and more” about the “threat posed by human trafficking” from its 196 member countries, Mr Chambers said.

The operation uncovered dozens of cases in which trafficking victims were “deceived and coerced into committing fraud”, for example through online scams, “marking a clear departure from traditional trafficking patterns, where human exploitation is the sole criminal objective,” Interpol said.

In many of these cases victims were being “lured with false promises of employment and are kept there through intimidation and abuse”.