UK to sign migration deal with Serbia as Lammy visits Western Balkans

Independent

01-04-2025

Britain will sign a deal with Serbia aimed at speeding up intelligence-sharing to disrupt people-smuggling, after Channel crossings reached a record high in the first three months of 2025.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy will ratify the 'co-operation agreement', first announced by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer five months ago at the European Political Community summit in Hungary, as he visits the Western Balkans this week.
The region is a key transit route through which migrants travel to the European Union and UK, accounting for almost 22,000 irregular border crossings into the continent recorded last year, according to the Foreign Office.
Russia has also long vied for influence in the region, which includes three Nato allies in Albania, North Macedonia and Montenegro, and its stability is seen by the Government as key to European security.
During his visit Mr Lammy will meet his counterparts to sign the agreement and hear directly from women who have survived human trafficking.
He will also visit British troops serving in KFOR, Nato's largest overseas peacekeeping mission. European security is expected to be high on the agenda amid uncertainty over the future of the Ukraine war.
The Government said the UK-Serbia deal would allow both countries to share information more quickly, to disrupt organised immigration crime.
Ahead of the trip, Mr Lammy said: '(Criminals) are risking lives for profit and becoming increasingly violent in their determination to make as much money as possible.
'This diabolical, lawless trade of smuggling vulnerable people is completely unacceptable and we are determined to end it as we secure the UK's borders under our plan for change.
'With the world becoming more dangerous and unpredictable, the Western Balkans is of critical importance to the UK and Europe's collective security, and the UK remains committed to building resilience and stability in the region.'
Earlier this year, former UK ambassador to the US Dame Karen Pierce was appointed special envoy to the Western Balkans as Britain prepares to host a major European summit with leaders from the region.
The Berlin Process summit will take place in the UK this autumn.
It comes as the Green Party accused Labour of abandoning 'compassion and principle' with a hardened stance on migration, after the party produced a leaflet saying it delivered the 'four biggest deportation flights in UK history'.
Co-leader of the Greens Carla Denyer said: 'Labour's recent leaflet boasting about deporting more people than the Tories is sickening.
'Labour are failing to provide safe and legal routes into the UK while seemingly revelling in turning people's lives upside down.
'Any claim the Labour Party may have once had to be a party of compassion or principle has well and truly gone.'
Labour said it would 'make no apologies for taking decisive action to secure our borders'.
A party spokesperson said: 'The Green Party is clearly not serious about tackling the issues facing our country.
'They want to block our progress on fixing the asylum system, and block new housing and infrastructure projects that will grow our economy and put money back in people's pockets.
'This Labour Government's Plan for Change has seen returns and removals hit their highest rate for eight years, and our new Border Security Command will go after the criminal gangs running this vile trade in human misery.'
The start of 2025 has seen the highest number of people making small-boat crossings for the first three months of a year on record.
Almost 30,000 people have crossed the English Channel in small boats since Sir Keir became Prime Minister, including 6,642 so far in 2025.
Sir Keir earlier this week blamed the Conservatives for failing to prevent people-smuggling gangs targeting the UK, saying Labour inherited a 'total fragmentation' of policing, Border Force and intelligence agencies.
He said the Government's Border Security Command would help address those gaps.