Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announces £150 million to tackle people smuggling gangs, with the funding being used to hire additional investigation officers and invest in surveillance and data analysis technology. Report by Alibhaiz. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00This £150 million is for the Border Security Command to hire additional investigators,
00:06intelligence officers, international liaison officers, and also invest in the new technology
00:11that we need, including on surveillance, on data analysis, to be able to go after the criminal
00:17gangs who are undermining border security, who are putting lives at risk. And we'll do this
00:21alongside new partnership agreements with other countries, because we have to tackle this as part
00:27of an international law enforcement operation. We've seen criminal smuggler and trafficking
00:33networks operate across borders. The challenges that they create affect countries not just in
00:40Europe, but beyond as well. And in order to deal with those cross-border criminal networks,
00:47we need cross-border law enforcement and cooperation. And that's why we're announcing
00:51this here at Interpol. That's why we're investing in additional UK resources as part of our Border
00:58Security Command. But we have to do this alongside other countries who are being heavily affected as
01:03well. We saw the first half of the year under the Conservatives, when the Rwanda scheme was
01:09in place, had the highest number of crossings for that time of the year on record. We were
01:15concerned that that would continue. In fact, that hasn't happened. Over the summer, the numbers were
01:19lower. In October, the numbers were higher. And that's linked to Met Office weather forecasts as
01:25well. But we can't just have things be affected simply by the weather. We've got to go after the
01:30criminal gangs who are at the heart of this problem. And the problem with the Rwanda scheme,
01:34it ran for two and a half years, spent £700 million and sent just four volunteers to Rwanda.
01:41That was a failing scheme. That's why we need to invest in going after the criminal gangs instead.
01:45We need to end asylum hotels that are costing the taxpayer a fortune and deal with the chaos
01:51that we've inherited in the asylum system. We did inherit in July a soaring backlog because
01:58the Conservatives had just collapsed asylum decision-making. It had dropped by about 75%,
02:04even just in the last few months. That's left us with a soaring backlog we're then having to deal
02:09with. They warned us that we would have to increase substantially the asylum accommodation
02:16through the summer. We've managed to prevent that happening. And that's why we are now taking
02:21the action, getting additional caseworkers in place and additional action to start clearing
02:25the backlog. And that will be saving hundreds of millions of pounds this year. And over the next
02:31few years, we're expecting to save £4 billion as a result of the measures that we're taking
02:36that will mean that we can take the action we need to end asylum hotels.
02:41The Prime Minister has made very clear that we welcome the election of Kemi Badenoch,
02:46and he has congratulated her on that election. I think we'll obviously have lots of differences
02:52about different issues, but as the Prime Minister has said, it's important to congratulate someone.
02:58To have the first black woman leader of a major political party is also inspiring for young people.