The UK and Germany sign a deal against smugglers as Europe fights to stop channel crossings

LONDON (AP) – The UK and Germany pledged Tuesday to share intelligence and expertise against people-smuggling gangs that send migrants across the English Channel in small boats, the latest effort by European countries to stop the dangerous journey.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper and her German counterpart, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, signed a “joint action plan” at a meeting in London. The UK said that under the deal, Germany would make it a crime to facilitate the smuggling of migrants to the UK. Most of the rubber boats used to carry migrants across the Channel are kept in Germany.

“The gangs that organize dangerous small boats across the channel undermine our border security, put people’s lives at risk, they are also gangs that operate in Germany, that operate across Europe and beyond,” Cooper said. “Law enforcement needs to work across borders.”

Faeser said the cooperation will include “maintaining a high investigative pressure, exchanging information between our security authorities in the best possible way, and persistently investigating the flow of money to find criminals working behind the scenes.”

The two countries said they would also work to remove migrant-smuggling content from social media, where many of the smuggling gangs advertise their services.

The two ministers signed the agreement before a meeting in London of the “Calais Group” of the UK, Germany, Belgium, France and the Netherlands, as well as the European Union’s police and border agencies, Europol and Frontex.

The United Kingdom’s leftist government is trying to rebuild law enforcement and intelligence relations with the UK’s neighbors after the country leaves the EU in 2020. Brexit complicates international cooperation by withdrawing the UK from Europol and the bloc’s intelligence-sharing mechanism.

Despite French and UK efforts to stop it, the cross-channel route remains a major smuggling route for people fleeing conflict or poverty. Many migrants prefer the UK for language reasons, family ties or perceived ease of access to asylum and work.

More than 31,000 migrants have made the perilous crossing on one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes so far this year, more than in 2023, although fewer than in 2022. More than 70 people have died in these attempts this year, according to the UK. officials, making 2024 the deadliest year since the number of crossings began to increase in 2018.

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