Yvette Cooper unleashes 'mafia-busting' tactics to smash small boat gangs

Senior UK and Italian government officials, alongside the National Crime Agency and Italian police chiefs, agreed on Friday to adopt a "follow the money" approach to disrupt illicit finance flows from trafficking gangs.

The taskforce will combine British and Italian law enforcement expertise to freeze criminal bank accounts and increase prosecutions of international smuggling networks.

The new taskforce will bring together specialist financial investigators with mafia experience and forensic accountants from both nations.

Joint operations will target the financial networks that enable people smuggling across the English Channel.

The initiative follows a week of diplomatic efforts on border control, including meetings of the Calais Group where ministers from the UK, Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands agreed on plans to tackle smuggling gangs in 2025.

Germany has also pledged to make it a clear criminal offence to facilitate migrant smuggling to the UK.

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The latest figures show more than 34,500 people have crossed the Channel in small boats this year, marking a 19% increase compared to 2023.

Last Thursday saw 609 people make the dangerous journey, making it the busiest December day for crossings on record.

A further 298 migrants arrived on Friday, according to provisional Government figures. The Home Office has reported that nearly 13,500 migrants have been removed from Britain since July, which it claims is the highest rate of returns since 2019.

Cooper told The Telegraph: "Italy is a world leader in taking down the highest harm criminals and disrupting its own mafia-style gangs, making them a strong partner for us to work with.“Our new joint taskforce with our Italian counterparts sends a clear message to the criminal people-smuggling gangs: We are coming for your money."

The Home Secretary emphasised that illegal working is "a blight on our economy" that undercuts law-abiding employers.

She pledged to boost immigration enforcement capabilities with £5 million for body-worn cameras and £3 million for new fingerprint kits.

Cooper met her Italian counterpart Matteo Piantedosi in Rome this weekend for bilateral talks on irregular migration.

The ministers discussed taking an "end to end approach", examining routes including the Western Balkans path used by thousands entering Europe illegally.