UK and Iraq strike deal to clamp down on people smuggling gangs

Britain and Iraq have agreed an unprecedented joint plan to tackle people smuggling gangs responsible for thousands of migrants crossing the Channel in small boats.

On a three-day visit to the country, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper also signed a new agreement to ensure failed Iraqi asylum seekers are returned home more "swiftly".

She met ministers from the federal government in Baghdad and regional leaders in Kurdistan in the north where many smuggling gangs are based.

The agreement will involve greater intelligence sharing and more joint law enforcement operations, all designed to increase the number of smugglers that are prosecuted.

The agreement is the first substantive attempt by the government to fulfil the prime minister’s "personal mission" to combat people smuggling at source rather than just trying to stop boats in the Channel.

Iraqi migrants are regularly among the top five nationalities seeking to cross to the UK and many of the smuggling networks across Europe are run by Iraqi Kurds.

We spoke to Shukria Badar, a mother of five boys and two girls from Erbil, whose son Baryar Mohamed used people smugglers to try to reach Britain. He perished in the Channel when his overloaded boat sank in heavy seas. He was 23-years-old.

Shukria wept as she told us how she fears one of her other sons may one day also try to reach Britain using people smugglers.

"I wish they would die all these smugglers. They deserve to die for every tear l've shed for my son, for every tear other mothers have shed for their children.

"I pray that God punishes them for what they have done, and there must be a law to put these smugglers in prison."

The new UK-Iraqi deal is designed to be a blueprint for further cooperation between both governments.

It will involve a new communications campaign to try to counter smuggler propaganda on social media. The aim will be to deter Iraqis coming to the UK by telling real stories about "the risks and realities of travelling to the UK irregularly".

A new taskforce of experts from both countries will be set up to agree ways of upgrading Iraq’s biometric border controls. This would help identify migrants without documentation.

The two governments also agreed to "enhance their cooperation" to ensure failed Iraqi asylum seekers in the UK are returned home "swiftly" by cutting red tape and improving technology.

But the home secretary refused to say how many Iraqis would be returned and how quickly.

She said: “We think this partnership is really important because it includes training, capability building, information sharing in order to go after these criminal gangs who are profiting from undermining border security, profiting from putting lives at risk.

"They've been operating out of the Kurdish region in Iraq and having that law enforcement cooperation across borders is crucial to going after gangs who operate across borders as well."