Why counter-terrorism style powers to clamp down on 'dire' UK migrant crisis is just the start

When this government took office, Britain’s immigration and asylum systems were in chaos.

Under the Tories, criminal gangs had been allowed to take hold along Channel, the Home Office had almost stopped making asylum decisions, leaving a huge backlog in costly hotels, and too many people with no right to be in the UK were not being returned.

A group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, from a Border Force vessel following a small boat incident in the Channel. Picture: Gareth Fuller/PA

Over several years, they had allowed an entire criminal industry to build up right along our borders, facilitating dangerous small boat crossings, undermining border security and putting lives at risk.

But as we said from day one, it should be the government that determines who can come to the UK – not gangs. And people across this country have a right to expect that the rules will be respected and enforced.

That is why, since the general election, we have been working hard to bring back controls into the system, to sort out the chaos and take the fight to the criminal gangs who have been undermining our border security for far too long.

Tackling illegal migration is a central part of the Labour government's Plan for Change. Already we have substantially increased enforcement - removing nearly 24,000 people who have no right to be in the UK, including foreign national offenders.

This includes an increase of more than 20 per cent enforced returns just since the election. And we have increased illegal working raids and arrests by nearly 40 per cent to prevent employers exploiting illegal migration to undercut wages and jobs returns.

We have established the new Border Security Command and backed UK law enforcement to play a leading role in major international operations to take out the gangs and their supply chains. We have struck new agreements with France, Germany, Iraq, Italy and the G7 to strengthen the action they will take this year, including new operations planned in French waters to prevent boat crossings, something that the previous government was never able to get agreed.

We have also introduced a new Bill in Parliament that will introduce counter-terrorism style powers to enable law enforcement to act earlier and faster against the people smuggling networks. But this is just the start.

The situation we inherited was dire, and it will take time to fix. Criminal smuggler and trafficking gangs have been allowed to take hold not just along UK borders ,but across the world for far too long, running a vile trade in human beings, and they have faced far too little challenge or enforcement. That has to change.

The gangs operate across borders, so law enforcement needs to co-operate across borders to bring them down. That’s why, this week, we are hosting in London a first-of-its kind summit to mobilise the international community behind the fight against organised immigration crime and deliver concrete actions to strengthen border security.

It will bring together government ministers and senior law enforcement from around 40 countries, including the US, China, France, Germany and Iraq, to focus on new partnerships and new action to tackle this dangerous and exploitative crime.

From following the illicit money the gangs make from smuggling and trafficking people across borders to disrupting their supply chain of small boats and engines and stopping them advertising their services on social media, we need collaboration across the globe to smash these criminal networks.

We must also take action here in the UK, cracking down on illegal working, which is used to offer false hope to those who wish to build a new life in the UK, and getting the asylum system back under control and clearing the backlog so we can end the use of extortionate asylum hotels.

We will respond to the challenges we face with graft, not gimmicks, rebuilding our border security, enforcing our laws and tackling exploitation. We have to be unrelenting in this task – and we will be. Because a better Britain is only possible if the foundations are strong.

Yvette Cooper is the UK home secretary and the MP for Pontefract, Castleford and Knottingley.