The National Crime Agency will recruit around 100 more specialist intelligence officers who will target criminal smuggling gangs, the home secretary has announced.
The recruitment drive is part of the new government's border-security plan, having scrapped the previous administration's Rwanda scheme.
Labour's plan, which is focused on "smashing" the small-boat smuggling gangs, includes the creation of a Border Security Command, a new 1,000-strong body to fast-track the removal of "failed" asylum seekers to "safe" countries.
The Home Office said the up-to-100 new specialist intelligence and investigation officers being hired at the NCA will target, dismantle and disrupt organised immigration-crime networks.
It said the NCA has already boosted the number of officers stationed in Europol by 50%. These officers have been immediately deployed to support European operations to disrupt the activity of criminal smuggling gangs profiting from small-boat crossings.
The NCA currently has around 70 investigations targeting the highest-harm criminal networks involved in people smuggling and trafficking.
Rob Jones, NCA’s director general of operations, said: “Tackling organised immigration crime remains a key priority for the NCA and we are dedicating more effort and resource than ever before. These extra officers will play a key role in that.”
The Home Office said it has also reassigned 300 caseworkers to work on thousands of failed asylum and returns cases, including enforced and voluntary returns.
The home secretary said the government will aim to, in the next six months, achieve the highest rate of removals since 2018 of failed asylum seekers and others who do not have the right to remain in the country. This would necessitate around 3,000 more removals this year than last year.
The Home Office said it has carried out nine successful returns flights in the last six weeks, including the largest-ever chartered return flight. The department is also increasing detention spaces to raise the capacity to enforce removals, adding 290 beds to its immigration removal centres.
Home secretary Yvette Cooper said: “We are taking strong and clear steps to boost our border security and ensure the rules are respected and enforced.
“Our new Border Security Command is already gearing up, with new staff being urgently recruited and additional staff already stationed across Europe. They will work with European enforcement agencies to find every route in to smashing the criminal smuggling gangs organising dangerous boat crossings which undermine our border security and put lives at risk.
“And by increasing enforcement capabilities and returns, we will establish a system that is better controlled and managed, in place of the chaos that has blighted the system for far too long.”