UK and Iraq sign security deal to curb people smuggling 

The United Kingdom says it has signed a security pact with Iraq to target people-smuggling gangs and strengthen border cooperation, the latest in its efforts to crack down on irregular migration.

“There are smuggler gangs profiting from dangerous small boat crossings whose operations stretch back through northern France, Germany, across Europe, to the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and beyond,” British interior minister Yvette Cooper said in a statement on Thursday.

“The increasingly global nature of organised immigration crime means that even countries that are thousands of miles apart must work more closely together,” she added.

“Organised criminals operate across borders, so law enforcement needs to operate across borders too,” she said during a visit to Iraq and its Kurdistan region.

As part of the agreements, London will provide up to 300,000 pounds ($380,000) for Iraqi law enforcement training in border security.

It will be focused on countering organised immigration crime and narcotics and increasing the capacity and capability of Iraq’s border enforcement.

The UK pledged another 200,000 pounds ($254,000) to support projects in the Kurdistan region that “will enhance capabilities concerning irregular migration and border security, including a new task force”.

Other measures within the agreements include a communications campaign “to counter the misinformation and myths that people-smugglers post online”.

Cooper’s Home Office said the security pact was “the biggest operational package to tackle serious organised crime and people smuggling between the two countries ever”.