UK to strike migrant return deal with Iraq in latest bid to stop small boats and send more asylum seekers back
The Home Secretary is said to be in the 'final stages' of agreeing the pact to speed up cooperation between London and Baghdad.
Ministers are under pressure to get a grip of the migrant crisis with 2025 on course to be a record year for small-boat crossings.
More than 21,000 people have already made the perilous journey across the Channel, and Iraqi Kurds now dominate the people smuggling networks.
Ms Cooper struck a deal with Iraq at the end of last year to tackle the gangs, including greater intelligence sharing and more law enforcement operations.
Since then, the National Crime Agency has been working with the Kurdish authorities and says it has succeeded in targeting criminals operating in places where they thought they were 'untouchable'.
But Ms Cooper hopes to strike an enhanced deal by the end of the summer to speed up cooperation between the UK and Iraq, enabling migrants to be detained and deported more quickly, The Sunday Times reported.
Meanwhile, it emerged that the Government is looking at digital ID cards for migrants, so they can show if they have the right to live and work in the UK.
Sir Keir Starmer will this week discuss border security with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
Writing in the Sunday Express, Sir Keir said Mr Merz's visit to the UK will include talks on 'what more we can do together to prosecute criminal networks and prevent people smuggling to the UK'.
According to the Home Office, 353 people crossed the English Channel by small-boats on Friday, just a day after the Prime Minister signed a deal with French president Emmanuel Macron aimed at deterring migrants from making the dangerous crossing. Under the terms, the UK will be able to send migrants back to France for the first time in exchange for asylum seekers with links to Britain.
The so-called one in, one out deal is due to begin in weeks on a pilot basis, but needs final legal verification from the EU.
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