UK to strike migrant deal with Germany in crackdown on small boat supply lines
Germany has agreed to close in a loophole in the law that would stop people smugglers using warehouses to store equipment for small boats as part of a new deal with the UK.
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The Prime Minister is set to sign a first-if-its kind treaty on defence, security and migration with German Chancellor Freidrich Merz.
A loophole in German law has reportedly meant people-smuggling gangs can easily use the country as a hub for the equipment used in illegal migration routes Britain.
Assisting people smugglers is currently not criminalised in Germany.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper secured German agreement to change the law in December that would make smuggling of migrants to the UK a criminal offence.
However, a change of the government in Berlin meant the deal had to be renegotiated.
Read more: Pat McFadden refuses to confirm total migrant channel crossings will fall over next 12 months
Merz is expected to commit to making the law change by the end of the year, according to The Times.
It will hand law enforcement agencies additional powers to investigate and prosecute the supply and storage of small boats likely to be used in Channel crossings, it is understood.
Sir Keir said: “Chancellor Merz’s commitment to make necessary changes to German law to disrupt the supply lines of the dangerous vessels which carry illegal migrants across the Channel is hugely welcome.
“As the closest of allies, we will continue to work closely together to deliver on the priorities that Brits and Germans share.”
It comes days after Britain struck a 'one in, one out' migrant deal with France, which will allow illegal migrants to be returned to France quickly in exchange for someone legally allowed to live in the UK.
He said the agreement will come into force in the coming weeks in the form of a pilot test. Migrants arriving by small boat will be "detained and returned to France in short order", Sir Keir added.
A similar returns deal with Germany is not in place, with the country not a key transit route like France despite it being used by smugglers to store small boats and engines.
It does include a pledge for the country to make people smugglers to UK an offence by the end of this year.
Some 19,982 migrants had arrived in the UK after making the dangerous crossing by the end of June, latest Home Office figures show.
The total is 48% higher than the figure for the first six months of 2024, which was 13,489, and 75% higher than the equivalent figure for 2023, which was 11,433.
Data collection on the Channel crossings began in 2018.
A Number 10 spokesman said the numbers are “clearly unacceptable”, adding: “Let’s be clear, the rising numbers in recent years are because these gangs have been allowed to embed industrial-scale smuggling enterprises across Europe.”
Labour was elected on a manifesto promise to “smash the gangs” smuggling people into the UK in small boats.
He has talked to countries about “return hubs” for failed asylum seekers as the Government looks at the possibility of processing them in third countries before they are deported.