Police Scotland led a multi-agency day of action in Kirkcaldy in relation to an ongoing human trafficking and modern slavery investigation.
One male aged 18 was arrested for human trafficking and modern slavery offences and has been released pending further enquiry.
A 52-year-old woman and a 46-year-old man were arrested for immigration offences and enquiries are ongoing.
Officers visited a business in the area on the morning of Thursday, 10 October, 2024, following intelligence received.
Representatives from Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC), Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), the Gangmasters and Labour Exploitation Authority (GLAA) and Justice and Care were also in attendance.
Detective Inspector Scott Wilson from Dumfries CID said: “Human trafficking and modern slavery are happening in our communities and this operation demonstrates our commitment to tackling this issue.
“We work closely with our partners to identify situations where this criminality is taking place and provide appropriate support to victims. However we cannot do this alone, and it is important that we increase awareness of the warning signs so that reporting can increase.
“Signs that someone could be being exploited at work can include being paid no legal wage and having little or no money, living in poor conditions and having their time on and off duty controlled by their employers.
“If you suspect modern slavery is happening in your community it is vital that you report this and enable us to protect victims and take action against those responsible for this exploitation.”
Anyone with information can contact Police Scotland on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
PM Rishi Sunak’s press statement on the next stage of the plan to stop the boats
Last week – yet again – Peers in the House of Lords contrived to stop the Safety of Rwanda Bill.
For almost two years our opponents have used every trick in the book to block flights and keep the boats coming.
But enough is enough.
No more prevarication. No more delay.
Parliament will sit there tonight and vote no matter how late it goes.
No ifs, no buts. These flights are going to Rwanda.
We are going to deliver this indispensable deterrent so that we finally break the business model of the criminal gangs and save lives.
Starting from the moment that the Bill passes we will begin the process of removing those identified for the first flight.
We have prepared for this moment.
To detain people while we prepare to remove them, we’ve increased detention spaces to 2,200.
To quickly process claims, we’ve got 200 trained dedicated caseworkers ready and waiting.
To deal with any legal cases quickly and decisively, the judiciary have made available 25 courtrooms and identified 150 judges who could provide over 5,000 sitting days.
The Strasbourg Court have amended their Rule 39 procedures in line with the tests set out in our Illegal Migration Act and we’ve put beyond all doubt that Ministers can disregard these injunctions with clear guidance that if they decide to do so, civil servants must deliver that instruction.
And most importantly, once the processing is complete, we will physically remove people.
To do that, I can confirm that we’ve put an airfield on standby booked commercial charter planes for specific slots…
…and we have 500 highly trained individuals ready to escort illegal migrants all the way to Rwanda, with 300 more trained in the coming weeks.
This is one of the most complex operational endeavours the Home Office has carried out.
But we are ready. Plans are in place.
And these flights will go come what may.
No foreign court will stop us from getting flights off.
Rwanda is ready too.
And I would like to thank the government of Rwanda for their work in strengthening their asylum system, passing legislation, and setting up a new appeals tribunal.
The next few weeks will be about action.
But whilst I’m conscious people want deeds not words I’m not going to outline now exactly what will happen when.
There are good operational reasons for this.
There is a loud minority who will do anything to disrupt our plan so we will not be giving away sensitive operational detail which could hinder all the progress made to date.
Teams across government need to be able to get on and deliver without interference.
They are working flat out to deliver this genuine game changer.
The first flight will leave in 10 to 12 weeks.
Now of course, that is later than we wanted.
But we have always been clear that processing will take time and if Peers had not spent weeks holding up the Bill in the House of Lords to try to block flights altogether, we would have begun this process weeks ago.
And the success of this deterrent doesn’t rest on one flight alone.
It rests on the relentless, continual process of successfully and permanently removing people to Rwanda with a regular rhythm of multiple flights every month over the summer and beyond until the boats are stopped.
Now I know there are some who will hear all of this and accuse me of lacking compassion.
But the truth is the opposite.
We are in a battle with callous, sophisticated, and global criminal gangs who care nothing for the lives they risk in unseaworthy dinghies.
Nine people have died already attempting to cross the Channel just this year – including a seven-year-old girl.
That’s why we secured the largest ever deal with France to strengthen interceptions on the French coastline.
And because a third of all arrivals were coming from Albania we struck a deal that reduced illegal Albanian migrants by 90 per cent.
Taken together we’re doubling illegal working raids and returning 150 hotels back to our communities.
We got the number of small boat arrivals last year down by more than a third the first time they had fallen since this phenomenon began, and at a time when European countries were seeing numbers rise exponentially.
But these sophisticated gangs are changing tactics once again.
As well as piling twice as many people into small dinghies and increasing violence against French police they have shifted their attentions towards vulnerable Vietnamese migrants.
Vietnamese arrivals have increased ten-fold and account for almost all of the increase in small boat numbers we have seen this year.
And just as we succeeded in reducing Albanian arrivals dramatically, so I’m confident we will do the same when it comes to the Vietnamese.
President Macron and I have agreed to work with European partners on closing loopholes to enter Europe in the first place.
The Home Office have signed a Joint Statement with the Vietnamese Government committing to deepen our already very strong migration relationship.
And just last week officials from the Government of Vietnam were at Western Jetfoil and Manston to observe Border Force operations on the front line as they continue to manage small boat arrivals.
But we can’t keep reacting to the changing tactics of these gangs. The truth is we need innovative solutions to address what is a global migration crisis to disrupt the business model of people smuggling gangs and save lives.
And that means a systematic deterrent.
The only way to stop the boats is to eliminate the incentive to come by making it clear that if you are here illegally, you will not be able to stay.
This policy does exactly that.
I believe it should be this country and your government who decides who comes here, not criminal gangs. And I have the plan to deliver it.
So we will start the flights – and stop the boats.
The Prime Minister Rishi Sunak made a speech on illegal migration yesterday (7 December 2023):
Today the government has introduced the toughest anti-illegal immigration law ever.I know it will upset some people and you will hear a lot of criticism about it. It’s right to explain why I have decided to do this.
I’m the child of immigrants … I understand why some people take the risk of getting into unsafe dinghies to cross open waters…
…it’s because the United Kingdom is an incredible country… it offers opportunity, hope and safety.
But the difference is: my family came here… legally.
Like most immigrants, they integrated into local communities…
…worked hard to provide for their family
…built lives and businesses, found friends and neighbours…
… and most of all… they were really proud to become British.
That feeling of pride… it cascades down the generations and grows… and that’s why you see so many children of immigrants sitting around the Cabinet table.
But it’s not a given… illegal immigration undermines not just our border controls… it undermines the very fairness that is so central to our national character.
We play by the rules. We put in our fair share. We wait our turn.
Now if some people can just cut all that out… you’ve not just lost control of your borders… you’ve fatally undermined the very fairness upon which trust in our system is based.
That’s why this legislation is necessary.
To deliver an effective deterrent to those who wish to come here illegally…
…to restore people’s trust that the system is fair…
… and ultimately: to stop the boats.
And so, our Bill today fundamentally addresses the Supreme Court’s concerns over the safety of Rwanda.
I did not agree with their judgement, but I respect it.
That is why I have spent the last three weeks working tirelessly to respond to their concerns…
…and to guarantee Rwanda’s safety in a new legally binding international treaty.
The Supreme Court were clear that they were making a judgement about Rwanda at a specific moment 18 months ago…and that the problems could be remedied.
Today we are confirming that they have been…
…and that unequivocally, Rwanda is a safe country.
And today’s Bill also ends the merry-go-round of legal challenges that have blocked our policy for too long.
We simply cannot have a situation where our ability to control our borders…
…and stop people taking perilous journeys across the channel…
…is held up in endless litigation in our courts.
So this Bill gives Parliament the chance to put Rwanda’s safety beyond question in the eyes of this country’s law.
Parliament is sovereign. It should be able to make decisions that cannot be undone in the courts.
And it was never the intention of international human rights laws…
…to stop a sovereign Parliament removing illegal migrants to a country that is considered safe in both parliamentary statute and international law.
So the Bill does include what are known as “notwithstanding” clauses.
These mean that our domestic courts will no longer be able to use any domestic or international law…
…including the Human Rights Act…
…to stop us removing illegal migrants.
Let me just go through the ways individual illegal migrants try and stay.
Claiming asylum – that’s now blocked.
Abuse of our Modern Slavery rules – blocked.
The idea that Rwanda isn’t safe – blocked.
The risk of being sent on to some other country – blocked.
And spurious Human Rights claims – you’d better believe we’ve blocked those too…
…because we’re completely disapplying all the relevant sections of the Human Rights Act.
And not only have we blocked all these ways illegal migrants will try and stay…
…we’ve also blocked their ability to try and stay by bringing a Judicial Review on any of those grounds.
That means that this Bill blocks every single reason that has ever been used to prevent flights to Rwanda from taking off.
The only, extremely narrow exception will be if you can prove with credible and compelling evidence…
….that you specifically have a real and imminent risk of serious and irreversible harm.
We have to recognise that as a matter of law – and if we didn’t, we’d undermine the treaty we’ve just signed with Rwanda.
As the Rwandans themselves have made clear…
…if we go any further the entire scheme will collapse.
And there’s no point having a Bill with nowhere to send people to.
But I am telling you now, we have set the bar so high…
…that it will be vanishingly rare for anyone to meet it.
And once you have been removed, you’ll be banned for life from travelling to the UK, settling here, or becoming a citizen.
But, of course, even with this new law here at home…
…we could still face challenges from the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
So let me repeat what I said two weeks ago –
I will not allow a foreign court to block these flights.
If the Strasbourg Court chooses to intervene against the express wishes of our sovereign Parliament…
…I will do what is necessary to get flights off.
And today’s new law already makes clear that the decision on whether to comply with interim measures issued by the European Court…
…is a decision for British government Ministers – and British government Ministers alone.
Because it is your government – not criminal gangs, or indeed foreign courts –who decides who comes here and who stays in our country.
Now of course, our Rwanda policy is just one part of our wider strategy to stop the boats.
And that strategy is working.
I’ve been Prime Minister for just over a year now and for the first time, small boat arrivals here are down by a third….
…even as illegal crossings of the Mediterranean have soared by 80 per cent.
Let me just repeat that: small boat arrivals here are down by a third.
To help achieve that, we’ve signed returns and co-operation agreements with France, Bulgaria, Turkey, Italy, and Georgia.
Illegal working raids are up by nearly 70 per cent.
50 hotels are being returned to their local communities and we are housing people in a new barge and in former military sites.
The initial asylum backlog is down from 92,000 to less than 20,000.
We’ve returned over 22,000 illegal migrants.
And as our deal with Albania shows – deterrence works.
Last year, a third of all those arriving in small boats were Albanian.
This year we have returned 5,000 people and cut those arrivals by 90 per cent.
And Albanian arrivals have far more recourse to the courts than anyone under this new legislation.
That’s why I’m so confident that this Bill will work.
Lord Sumption, the former Supreme Court Judge, believes this Bill will work.
We will get flights off the ground.
We will deter illegal migrants from coming here.
And we will, finally, stop the boats.
AN EXPENSIVE BUSINESS
The UK has given Rwanda a further £100m this year as part of its deal to relocate asylum seekers there.
The payment was made in April, the Home Office’s top civil servant Sir Matthew Rycroft said in a letter to MPs, after £140m had already been paid to Rwanda.
THE LETTER READS:
07 December 2023
Migration and Economic Development Partnership Funding
Dear Dame Diana and Dame Meg,
At the evidence sessions on 29th November and 4th December respectively, you and your Committees asked me about payments the UK Government had made to the Government of Rwanda for the purposes of the Migration and Economic Development Partnership.
As I said then, the total the UK Government paid in the financial year 2022-23 was £140m. This comprised an initial investment of £120 million through an Economic Transformation and Integration Fund (ETIF) which is for the economic development and growth of Rwanda. A separate payment of £20 million was also paid in this timeframe to support initial set up costs for the relocation of individuals.
I set out why Ministers had decided to announce payments in the 2023-24 financial year in our Annual Reporting and Accounts next summer, for reasons of balancing the public interest. I fully recognise the public interest in transparency and accountability of public authorities for expenditure and the broad public interest in furthering public understanding of the issues with which public authorities deal. However, this must also be balanced against public interests which work the other way. For example, you will recognise the importance of respecting commercial confidence and the maintenance of confidence between international partners.
Since then, Ministers have agreed that I can disclose now the payments so far in the 2023-24 financial year. There has been one payment of £100m, paid in April this year as part of the Economic Transformation and Integration Fund mentioned above. The UK Government has not paid any more to the Government of Rwanda thus far. This was entirely separate to the Treaty – The Government of Rwanda did not ask for any payment in order for a Treaty to be signed, nor was any offered. Any additional funds will be announced in our Annual Report and Accounts in the usual way.
In the 2024-25 financial year, we anticipate another payment of £50m as part of the ETIF as agreed with Government of Rwanda when the Migration and Economic Development Partnership was signed.
All of these payments are covered by the Ministerial Direction of 16th April 2022. Given the public interest, this letter will be published on GOV.UK.
The Prime Minister’s plan to stop the boats is beginning to work, with small boat arrivals to the UK down by 20% this year.
This is the first time since the small boat phenomenon began that arrivals in the first half of the year fell compared to the year before. This is not a Europe-wide trend – small boat arrivals to Europe are up 30%.
The Prime Minister set out the progress that has been made on this, one of his five priorities, on a visit to Dover this morning. He also confirmed that:
Our French deal prevented 33,000 illegal crossings last year, 40% more than the year before
Thanks to our partnership with the Government of Albania, Albanian small boat arrivals are down 90% year-on-year and we have returned more than 1,800 Albanian illegal migrants and foreign criminals on weekly flights since December
We have increased the number of illegal working raids by more than 50%, and arrests have more than doubled
The legacy asylum backlog is down almost a fifth since December – and we are on track to deliver our target to clear this by the end of the year
During his statement, the Prime Minister made clear that we still face significant obstacles, and we will see more crossings in the months ahead, but he is determined to stay the course and do what it takes to fix this problem.
The Prime Minister also announced the next steps in the Government’s relentless efforts to get illegal migrants out of expensive hotels and into alternative sites, including confirming that the Government has secured two new vessels. These plans will see thousands moved out of hotels by the Autumn.
Reforms will ‘speed up the removal of people with no right to be here and enhance safeguards to protect unaccompanied children’
THE UK government has tabled a number of amendments to the Illegal Migration Bill to strengthen it further, ahead of it returning to Parliament next week – helping to deliver our priority of ‘stopping the boats’.
The amendments tabled this week will help to speed up the removal of people with no right to be here and enhance safeguards for unaccompanied children who cross the Channel in small boats.
Amendments also include a commitment to consult local authorities within three months of the bill becoming law to understand their capacity to support people coming to the UK through safe and legal routes, and to publish a report on existing, and any proposed additional safe and legal routes, within six months of the bill becoming law.
Together these will provide greater clarity and ensure progress on delivering our plans for safe and legal routes with an annual cap, agreed by Parliament, to ensure we are properly supporting people to rebuild their lives in the way communities would expect.
The UK will continue to play a world-leading role in protecting those in need who come to the country illegally. However, to tackle the abuse of the system which detracts from our ability to help those in need, further amendments are being made to ensure the UK can better protect its borders.
To speed up removals, amendments will make clear that the UK’s domestic courts cannot apply any interim measure to stop someone being removed if they bring forward a legal challenge, aside from in the narrow route available under the bill where they are at risk of serious and irreversible harm.
Instead, challenges would be heard remotely after the person concerned had been removed. This will ensure that someone would only be able to apply for a domestic injunction to prevent their removal if they were to face “serious and irreversible harm” in the country they were due to be removed to.
Amendments will also make clear that ministers may exercise discretion in relation to interim measures issued by the European Court of Human Rights, and set certain principles under which they would make a decision whether to comply or not.
Alongside the amendment, the government is having constructive discussions regarding reform to the Rule 39 process in Strasbourg, to support greater timeliness, accountability and representation in such cases.
Further amendments include:
giving immigration officers new powers to search for and seize electronic devices like mobile phones from people who come to the UK illegally – to help them assess whether someone has the right to be in the UK
increasing protections around the safeguarding risk caused by adults pretending to be children, by bringing in new regulations that will see age-disputed people treated as an adult if they refuse to undergo a scientific age assessment.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman said: “The British public are rightly fed up with people coming to the UK through dangerous small boat crossings, and myself and the Prime Minister are absolutely committed to stopping the boats once and for all.
“The changes I am announcing today will help secure our borders and make it easier for us to remove people by preventing them from making last minute, bogus claims, while ensuring we strengthen our safe and legal routes.
“My focus remains on ensuring this landmark piece of legislation does what it is intended to do, and we now must work to pass it through Parliament as soon as possible so we can stop the boats.”
Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick said: “It is not fair that people can pay criminal gangs thousands of pounds and pass through multiple safe countries to come to the UK illegally.
“The only way to break the business model of the evil people smugglers and secure our borders is to make sure that if people come to the UK illegally, they won’t be able to stay.
“These amendments will make it easier to swiftly remove individuals who come here illegally from safe countries, whilst re-affirming our commitment to help those directly from regions of conflict and instability.”
These new powers are part of further amendments tabled by the government yesterday to strengthen the ‘landmark’ Illegal Migration Bill, which will see people who come to the UK illegally in scope for detention and swift removal.
The amendments relating to safe and legal routes were laid by Tim Loughton MP, and measures to prevent UK courts from interfering to stop a removal were laid by Danny Kruger MP – the government will support these measures when the bill goes back to the House of Commons for report stage next week. The remaining measures have been tabled by the government.
Package will see a new detention centre established in France as well as the deployment of more French personnel and enhanced technology to patrol beaches in a shared effort to drive down illegal migration
Package will see a new detention centre established in France as well as the deployment of more French personnel and enhanced technology to patrol beaches in a shared effort to drive down illegal migration.
The unparalleled multi-year agreement delivers on the PM’s priority to stop small boats and builds on joint measures taken with France in 2022 which increased patrols by 40%.
Enhanced cooperation aims to increase the interception rate for attempted crossings and drastically reduce the number of crossings each year.
Hundreds of extra French law enforcement officers will use enhanced technology and intelligence insight to prevent illegal Channel crossings under a new agreement struck by the Prime Minister and President Macron in Paris yesterday.
For the first time, the UK will help fund a detention centre in France to enhance the country’s ability to cope with the level of people being trafficked across the Channel. This new centre will support French efforts to increase detention capacity, allowing more migrants who might otherwise travel by dangerous and illegal routes to the UK to be removed from the French coast.
Building on our existing partnership, which saw twice as many illegal crossings stopped in 2022 than 2021, today’s agreement will also more than double the number of personnel deployed in northern France to tackle small boats, with over half of these in place by the end of the year. The UK will contribute funding towards this.
Efforts will be bolstered by a new, highly trained, permanent French mobile policing unit dedicated to tackling small boats. Additional drones, aircraft and other technologies like surveillance will also be deployed, as the UK and France step up intelligence sharing to clamp down on people trafficking routes.
These French efforts will be overseen by a new 24/7 zonal coordination centre, with permanent UK liaison officers. The coordination centre will bring all relevant French law enforcement partners together for the first time to coordinate the response to an alarming trend which has seen a 50% rise in illegal migration across Europe in the last year. The UK has our own Small Boats Operations Command which has ensured that 99% of those who enter British waters are intercepted.
This enhanced cooperation aims to increase the increase the interception rate for attempted crossings and drastically reduce the number of crossings each year, supporting our long-term, shared goal of completely stopping this illegal migration route.
The Prime Minister said: “I have made it one of my five priorities to stop the boats. We are delivering on that priority to stop people coming to the UK illegally.
“Last year I agreed the largest ever small boats deal with France to increase UK-funded patrols by 40 per cent. This week I announced measures to ensure nobody who enters the UK illegally can remain here.
“We don’t need to manage this problem, we need to break it. And today, we have gone further than ever before to put an end to this disgusting trade in human life. Working together, the UK and France will ensure that nobody can exploit our systems with impunity.”
In addition to the extra steps taken to patrol the beaches in the north of France, today’s agreement will also see further UK and French cooperation upstream to stop illegal migration at source. This includes further coordination between the National Crime Agency and its French counterpart via officers based in countries along the routes favoured by people traffickers.
Alongside last year’s deal with France, the Prime Minister has taken a number of steps to curb illegal migration since taking office. This includes re-establishing the Calais Group of Northern European nations to disrupt traffickers and setting a long-term ambition for a UK-EU wide agreement on returns – an ambition France has confirmed today that they share.
This week the UK Government has announced a Bill to end illegal entry as a route to asylum in the UK.
These measures will remove the incentive for people to risk their lives through dangerous and unnecessary journeys and pull the rug from under the criminal gangs profiting from this misery once and for all.
Illegal migrants will be detained and swiftly removed to their home country if safe, or another safe third country, such as Rwanda, where they will be supported to rebuild their lives.
Anyone illegally entering the UK will be prevented from accessing the UK’s world-leading modern slavery support or abusing these laws to block their removal.
The only challenges that will suspend removal will be where someone claims that their removal to a safe third country would lead to a real risk of serious and irreversible harm, or on the basis that they do not fall within the cohort of persons liable to removal under the Bill. Any other challenges or human rights claims can also only be heard after removal, remotely.
By ending illegal immigration as a route to asylum, stopping the boats and taking back control of our borders the Bill will ensure the UK can better support people coming through fair, safe and legal routes.
To help tackle illegal migration, the UK government is proposing tougher penalties for hauliers and vehicle drivers found carrying clandestine migrants
As part of the continued fight against illegal migration and the criminal gangs behind it, changes to the existing clandestine entrant civil penalties scheme will be made through the Nationality and Borders Act.
These include new civil penalties for hauliers and vehicle drivers who fail to adequately secure their vehicle and conduct proper checks, regardless of whether a clandestine entrant is found, as part of efforts to prevent dangerous journeys which risk serious injury or even death.
Since 2020, the number of clandestine entrants coming to the UK via HGV and goods vehicles has continued to increase year on year. The government is determined to stop this, including via these refreshed penalties for hauliers and vehicle drivers who leave themselves vulnerable to exploitation.
Ahead of implementation, we are seeking the views of vehicle drivers, companies and other interested parties on all these new measures.
The consultation with the industry will run for 8 weeks and will close on 12 September 2022.
Alongside the consultation, the Home Office will be running a series of engagement events to explore these issues in more detail.
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State Simon Baynes MP said: “We are determined to do all we can to prevent illegal entry into the UK.
“Criminal gangs who risk the lives of desperate people for profit are taking advantage of those whose vehicles travel in and out of the country.
“Far too many vehicles are currently not adequately secured, and we will seek to increase penalties on those who are negligent and prosecute those who are complicit.
“This consultation is the next vital step in achieving this, and we look forward to working with the haulage industry and other interested parties to ensure that they are aware of the necessary requirements.”
The recently enacted Nationality and Borders Act is part of the UK government’s New Plan for Immigration to make it fairer for those in genuine need, deter illegal entry into the UK, break the business model of people-smuggling networks and remove those from the UK with no right to be here.
