Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser travels to London for talks focused on fighting the illegal smuggling of migrants. Federal Minister Faeser and her British counterpart, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, signed the Joint Action Plan on Irregular Migration with measures for Germany and the UK to further their joint fight against international crime. Federal Minister Faeser and Home Secretary Cooper also co-hosted the fourth meeting of the Calais Group. This meeting, too, was focused on fighting international migrant smuggling, particularly with regard to irregular migration across the English Channel, which in many cases is organised in Germany.

Joint Action Plan on Irregular Migration signed by Germany and the UK

“These gangs who use threats and force to cram people into inflatable boats and send them across the Channel put human lives at risk. We are now taking even stronger action together to stop this unscrupulous exploitation of human hardship. This includes ramping up the pressure of investigations, optimising information-sharing between our security authorities and tenaciously pursuing financial flows to identify the criminals behind these operations,” Federal Minister Faeser said in London. In 2024, at least 70 people died trying to cross the Channel in small boats.

Under the joint action plan, Germany and the UK will increase their cooperation. Among other things, this plan will

• create a permanent framework for greater cooperation in fighting irregular migration and illegal migrant smuggling;
• reinforce the possibilities for operational action by the British and German law enforcement authorities;
• underscore efforts by Germany and the UK to work together with European and regional partners;
• focus attention on criminal smuggling networks and illegal financial flows in their entirety; and
• initiate international connections to the new British Border Security Command.

Source: UK Home Office

International blow to migrant smuggling gangs

Just last week, Germany’s Federal Police took part in an international operation aimed at migrant smuggling gangs. “These are dangerous, often armed individuals,” Federal Minister Faeser said, speaking about the raids and arrests made in cooperation with Europol, Eurojust and other European partners. “The raids carried out in Germany by the Federal Police on 4 December 2024 are proof of our effective and intensive cooperation with the British and French law enforcement authorities when it comes to fighting migrant smuggling,” the federal minister said.

Meeting of the Calais Group

Before travelling to London, Federal Minister Faeser described the work of the Calais Group as crucial for the fight against the brutal crime of migrant smuggling. “We will continue to closely coordinate our efforts in this area,” the federal minister said about her meeting with Home Secretary Cooper and other interior ministers in the Calais Group. “We want to step up our efforts to fight migrant smuggling by turning up the pressure of investigations and rigorously enforcing the law.”

Participants in the Calais Group meeting included representatives from France (Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau), Belgium (Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden and Nicole de Moor, State Secretary for Asylum and Migration) and the Netherlands (Marjolein Faber, Minister of Asylum and Migration), as well as from the European Commission (Beate Gminder, Acting Director-General, Internal Affairs and Migration) and from Europol and Frontex.

Source: picture alliance / empics | Henry Nicholls