Lord Empey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Empey on 2016-03-01.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the part played by people traffickers in the arrival in northern France of large numbers of refugees and migrants seeking access to the UK.

Lord Bates

We are deeply concerned by the migration crisis in Europe. We believe that organised criminal gangs are operating in and around the camps in Northern France and fuelling organised immigration crime. We are working closely with our French counterparts through the Joint Operational Command and Control Centre which includes intelligence sharing and developing the intelligence picture and we will continue to assess this crime type.

In addition, the UK has provided specific financial assistance to fund a project aimed at protecting the most vulnerable people in the camps, agreed in the UK-France Declaration of August 2015. This project is setup to identify vulnerable people in the camps in Calais and is being delivered by a French non-Government organisation, France Terre D’Asile. It seeks to identify potential victims of trafficking and exploitation (including children), and direct them to existing protection, support and advice within France. The UK has contributed £530,000 (€750,000) towards the costs of this project.