PM Sir Keir Starmer yesterday praised the arrest of a suspected people-smuggling kingpin.
The Turkish national, 44, was held in Amsterdam on Wednesday.
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Sir Keir said his arrest was a “significant piece of the jigsaw”.
He added: “I’m not pretending it’s the silver bullet. Other steps are going to be necessary, but this is a very important step.”
The suspect is accused of storing dinghies in Germany to be moved to France. He faces extradition to Belgium for trial.
SINCE becoming Prime Minister, it’s no secret that I’ve been driving forward efforts to boost collaboration with our European partners to tackle the challenge of illegal migration.
We were elected with a mandate to change our country and secure our borders.
And we’re delivering on our promise of change.
Bringing order back to our asylum system won’t just safeguard our national security, but deliver economic security too, as we slash the amount of taxpayer cash that was being spent to keep the system from descending into chaos.
And let’s be clear, this isn’t just about migrants being loaded into boats in Calais.
This is a criminal network that spans the continent – supplying materials, facilitating transit, trading in human misery.
I will not accept that these gangs can’t be taken down. I know that if we focus our resources and collaborate we can break their business model.
Yesterday we saw that work in action, as the UK’s National Crime Agency worked closely with the Dutch and Belgians on an operation that saw the arrest of a man suspected of being a significant supplier of small boats equipment to people smugglers.
This is one important step.
But our Border Security Command is now up and running.
And we’re arming them with the resources they need to get the job done, including 100 more officers for the NCA and funding to boost their technical capabilities.
I’m confident that there is more to come.
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