The Prime Minister (Mrs Theresa May):...At this
Council, I argued that we must do more to dismantle the vile
people-smuggling rings who profit from the migrants’ misery and
who are subjecting many to unimaginable abuses. With co-ordinated
and committed action, we can make a difference. Indeed, just last
month an operation between our National Crime Agency and the
Hellenic coastguard led to the arrest of 19 members of an
organised immigration crime group in Greece. As I have argued
before, we need a managed, controlled and truly global approach,
and that is exactly what the Council agreed. We need to help to
ensure that refugees claim asylum in the first safe country they
reach, and help those countries to support the refugees so they
do not have to make the perilous journey to Europe. We need a
better overall approach to managing economic migration, one which
recognises that all countries have the right to control their
borders. Engaging our African partners in this global approach
will be crucial, and this will be an important part of the
discussions at the Somalia conference which the UK will be
hosting in London in May...
(Islington North)
(Lab):...The Prime Minister said that she had argued
about tackling vile smuggling rings, and about people being
subjected to unimaginable abuse. Does she not agree that her
argument would be so much stronger if her Government had been
prepared to accept some of the victims of that unimaginable
abuse; for example, the children who should have been accepted
through the Dubs amendment?
Prime Minister:...The right hon. Gentleman
appeared to suggest that the UK Government are doing absolutely
nothing to break the vile smuggling rings. In my statement, I
quoted a recent example of the work of the National
Crime Agency; I might add that it was a Conservative-led
Government who set up the NCA and the Organised Immigration Crime
Taskforce. The Government are dealing with these issues. He talks
about abuses and the movement and trafficking of people, but it
is this Government who brought in the Modern Slavery Act 2015. I
am very proud that it is this Government who did so...
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(UUP):...My Lords,
could I ask the noble Baroness a question on the migration
issues? The guiding rules are those in the Dublin agreement, but
that is just not working and has not worked. In fact, a whole
industry has been set up by smugglers who are making vast
fortunes. While it is welcome that a number of arrests have been
made, that is merely a drop in the ocean. Do the Government
intend to press our European partners to have a really coherent
policy on these matters, because the problem is not going away—it
is going to get worse?
: We are working closely with our European
partners. Of course, the Royal Navy has vessels in the
Mediterranean, saving lives and assisting with the training of
the Libyan coast-guard, for instance. We are providing 40 staff
to Greece to support admissibility and interviewing of migrants,
and sharing expertise to support Italy, and work by our National
Crime Agency and Organised Immigration Crime Taskforce, in
concert with our European counterparts, has seen us managing to
arrest quite a number of individuals involved in smuggling in the
past three months alone—and that remains a priority for us...
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