It was, of course, appalling that 39 people froze to death while being smuggled into the UK. This was indeed a result of the fact that we have immigration restrictions. Then again, a rich country with a welfare system is always going to have immigration restrictions, free movement cannot happen in the presence of a money tree.
A slightly different worry though. Upon Brexit then we Britons will be out of the EU’s specialist unit on people smuggling.
The UK faces being excluded from Europe’s anti-trafficking unit after Brexit, senior MPs and experts warned last night. The unit is coordinating international investigations into the deaths of 39 people whose bodies were found in the back of a lorry in Essex last week.
The warning came as on Saturday the driver of the truck, Maurice Robinson, was charged with 39 counts of manslaughter and conspiracy to traffic people over the deaths in Grays. The 25-year-old will appear at Chelmsford magistrates court tomorrow, where he will also face 39 counts of conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration and money laundering.
The anti-trafficking unit involved in the case, the European Migrant Smuggling Centre, is part of the EU’s law enforcement agency, Europol, and has been at the heart of a global inquiry into the tragedy. A Europol source said investigators at the centre were “working around the clock trying to put together the pieces of the puzzle”.
The unit is regarded as the most sophisticated organisation of its kind in Europe, with unrivalled ability to track cross-border crime and a huge database of smuggling networks.
This might not be the greatest worry in the world of course.
For the story is that this was only one of three such trucks carrying those illegal immigrants. Or, as you prefer, those poor people seeking a better life.
Being members of that specialist and elite EU people smuggling police team managed to catch none of them. Not being in it?
Sure, perhaps they catch some or many. But to use the example of those not caught as the proof that it would be awful if we Leave has a certain gap in the justificatory logic.
We could in fact go further. As Remoaners keep telling us, we’re going to have to step up consideration of trucks and containers moving into Britain as a result of Brexit. So much so that every lorry will have to be checked – currently Zeebrugge x-rays only 1% of containers – to the extent that we’ll have week long queues at every port. Because we’re going to have to check every single one.
If we check every single one then there will be no space to use the system for people smuggling. The process dependent upon that statistical probability of being thoroughly checked and if that rises to 100% then the method becomes useless.
That is, far from Brexit causing us more problems over people smuggling in lorries it would seem to be the solution. If, that is, the stories about everything having to be checked are true. And why would people lie to us about that?
Why do we have to be in a political union to cooperate on trying to reduce people smuggling?(or any other law and order issue for that matter)
Your point is well made. Europol has liaison agreements with 41 non-EU member states and there is of course Interpol. Additionally some of the EU’s efforts are ludicrous, the EU Serious and Organised Crime Threat Assessment (SOCTA) defines organised crime as being when “two or more people conspire to commit crime”, meaning at its most absurd that two school boys planning to shop lift a lollipop together are organised criminals.