Britain's FBI ‘opens talks with China’ over small boats Channel crossings
13 December 2024, 06:40
Britain's equivalent to the FBI says it has "opened talks with China" over small boats crossing the English Channel.
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Cheap, Chinese-made engines are routinely being used by people smugglers to power dinghies, some filled with up to 60 migrants, travelling from France to the UK.
Now, the head of the National Crime Agency (NCA) has said "there’s no way" Chinese firms "don’t know" their engines are being used by organised smuggling gangs.
Graeme Biggar, director general for operations at the NCA, said: “It’s hard not to notice, with all the attention around small boats and the uptick in exports.”
“You can begin to draw inferences by looking at all the engines that are coming over. They are very low powered so they would only normally be used on inland waterways or whatever.
“When you look at the market share and the amount being exported, you can begin to build an inference here that feels like it is probably going to be tied to immigration crime," he added.
“It’s obviously Chinese companies, not the Chinese state, so we’re going to their police and asking them to investigate.”
Talks with China’s law enforcement are said to have started in the last few months and are described as being "positive" where wider cooperation with the UK is concerned.
Around 70 people have died attempting to make the journey across the Channel this year.
The migrants are largely travelling from seven key beaches along the coast of northern France, making their way across the Channel to beaches along the south coast of England.
Recent months have seen ministers pledged to tackle the issue by going after the people smuggling gangs facilitating the crossings, with the new Border Security Command charged with tackling the issue and liaising internationally.
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The National Crime Agency, which has seized 450 boats and engines since the start of 2024, has said "we need to price the gangs out of their business".
Already, they say their work has seen the cost of Channel crossings double, with increased costs to the gangs who rely on the cheap supply of boats and engines.
“We’re deliberately targeting those supplies,” they said, adding, “it will no longer become viable for them when it no longer produces profit.”
Dan Barcroft, the threat lead for organised immigration crime, told LBC: “Every single one of those boats and engines could’ve been used to facilitate a crossing so that’s having a real impact on those gangs.
“We’ve also seen the organised crime gangs being forced to adapt their tactics and use different, longer and costlier routes to transport that equipment through Europe, to Germany and then ultimately to the coastline in France.”
European partners are said to be helping the UK in its mission "more than ever" in operations to seize supplies and arrest facilitators.
But they warned that legislation and regulations on the continent must be tightened to make the removal of boats from the supply chain easier, given the vessels aren’t in themself illegal.
Increasingly, the NCA says it has also seen smuggling gangs using social media platforms to advertise their services to vulnerable people.
More than 7,000 posts have been removed by the organisation in 2024 - more than across any other year.
Dan Barcroft told us: “In terms of how callous they are, they’re usually offering people a safe crossing, a VIP crossing, hot food and drinks.
“But when they arrive there, they find they’re actually being crammed into a boat that doesn't have a rigid floor with 60 or 70 other people and what they’re being given for a lifejacket is a bicycle inner tube.
“Those are the sort of gangs we’re trying to dismantle.”
The NCA has now urged social media platforms to do more to remove the posts and accounts automatically.
