The British Prime Minister announced that he would allocate £84 million to countries in Africa and the Middle East to tackle the migration crisis “at its source”. At the European Political Community (EPC) summit, Sir Keir Starmer indicated that the money would be directed towards health, education and humanitarian initiatives, in order to provide substantive solutions and promote local development.
At the summit, it was made clear that the £84 million would come from the existing overseas aid budget and would be split as follows:
- £13 million for Migration for Development programmes in North and East Africa.
- £21 million in multilateral support to host countries and key transit countries such as Libya, Ethiopia, Egypt and Chad.
- £26m for programmes in the Middle East to support Syrian refugees.
- £24 million in direct funding to communities in Sudan, Chad and Ethiopia.
In addition, £2 million will be allocated to IOM projects in Libya.
Labour government’s intentions to restore its international reputation
Starmer commented that at the EPC meeting, the government had “recalibrated our focus” and “deepen our cooperation” with European partners to tackle illegal migration, including increasing the UK’s presence in Europol and agreeing new cooperation agreements with Slovenia and Slovakia to combat organised crime and share more intelligence to dismantle gangs.
Recalling his experience as director of public prosecutions, he said he had seen “the work that can be done across borders to bring terrorists to justice and dismantle their networks,” and that he believed the same could be done with organized migration crime. He stressed the need to work with European friends to advance issues such as illegal immigration and national security.
Starmer is under pressure to control Channel crossings, with more than 14,000 people making the dangerous journey by 2024. Recently, one person died and 71 others were rescued when their boat deflated off the coast of northern France.
Downing Street noted that millions of people migrate every year due to conflict, climate change and humanitarian crises, putting pressure on host communities and leaving individuals vulnerable to exploitation. Support will therefore be directed at “the main causes of irregular migration”.
Asked about the scale of the crisis, Starmer said they had inherited a serious problem from the previous government, which had not adequately addressed the situation. He said it was not easy to fix the problem quickly, but time and resources had been wasted on ineffective plans such as the one in Rwanda. The new prime minister highlighted measures his government had taken, such as creating a new border security command and reallocating funds from the Rwanda plan to agreements with European partners, to restore land and improve border security.
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fountain: Sky News
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