UK hosts summit to fight against illegal migration

Representatives from the United States, Vietnam, Iraq, France and more than 35 other nations gathered in London on Monday for a summit aimed at coordinating global efforts to counter illegal migration and the people-smuggling gangs.

Speaking at the Organised Immigration Crime Summit, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer called for nations to pool resources to tackle the problem of illegal migration at "every step" of the route.

The UK government said the two-day event marks the first time a global summit of this scale examined all aspects of illegal migration — from small boat supply chains to trafficking, finance and social media advertising.

Delegations from Interpol and social media companies including Meta, X and TikTok are also in attendance for discussions on how to disrupt a criminal trade worth an estimated $10 billion a year, reported the BBC.

"This evil trade exploits the cracks between our institutions, it pits nations against one another, it profits from our inability at the political level to come together," Starmer told the summit. "I simply don't believe that organized immigration crime cannot be tackled. So we've got to combine our resources, share intelligence and tactics and tackle the problem upstream at every step of the smuggling journey."

The UK Home Office said the summit will deliver "concrete outcomes" for nations across four continents, while Home Secretary Yvette Cooper told Sky News on Sunday that officials are exploring options to process asylum claims in other countries.

Cooper said the summit is necessary because illegal immigration is a "global problem".

"The criminal gang networks that end up with people arriving in the UK stretch back through northern France, through Germany, across Europe, to places like the hills of Kurdistan or the money markets in Kabul," she said.

More than 6,000 people have crossed the English Channel in 2025, surpassing the 5,435 arrivals recorded in the first quarter of 2024 and marking a record start to the year, reported Sky News.

Ahead of the summit, the UK government announced a package of measures for tackling illegal migration, including more funding for border security and prosecutions, stricter right-to-work checks with heavy penalties for businesses in the UK, a review of human rights laws in migration cases, targeted funding for Iraq's Kurdistan region and social media campaigns in Vietnam.

The summit follows a series of bilateral agreements the UK has secured with other countries to tackle the rising number of small boat arrivals, noted the BBC.

Starmer was elected in July, promising to "smash the gangs "behind the crossings. He immediately ditched the previous Conservative government's policy to deter migrants through a program to deport them to Rwanda.

Agencies contributed to this story.

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