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 discussions they have had with the EU, UN, and Interpol with regard to the pursuit of criminal gangs that exploit refugees and migrants in Europe.

Lord Bates

The Government takes a system-wide approach to tackling organised immigration crime and we are working with international partners to smash the criminal gangs that are fuelling this terrible trade in people. The UK has been at the forefront of calls in the EU for a robust approach to tackling organised immigration crime, including through Europol and encouraging all Member States to contribute intelligence to its Joint Operations Team Mare initiative.

In June 2015 the Prime Minister announced the creation of the Organised Immigration Crime Taskforce bringing together officers from the National Crime Agency, Border Force, Immigration Enforcement and the Crown Prosecution Service to exploit every opportunity at source, in transit countries and in Europe to tackle organised crime groups criminal operations. The Taskforce funding was subsequently expanded in November 2015 to increase resources to 100 dedicated officers until 2020. The Taskforce is working with international partners actively sharing intelligence and progressing criminal investigations.