‘Five Eyes’ ministers meet to discuss smashing people smuggling gangs, UK says

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LONDON (Reuters) – Homeland ministers from Britain, the United States and the other “Five Eyes” alliance will announce new measures this week to increase border security and target people smugglers, British interior minister Shabana Mahmood said on Sunday.

The ministers from the Five Eyes intelligence sharing network – the U.S., Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand – will meet in London on Monday and Tuesday, Britain’s Home Office said, with measures to “smash criminal smuggling gangs” the focus of the talks.

“We will agree new measures to protect our borders with our Five Eyes partners, hitting people smugglers hard,” Mahmood, who was only appointed to her job on Friday after Prime Minister Keir Starmer reshuffled his ministers.

Countries across the world are wrestling with how to deal with the issue of migration, with the U.S. President Donald Trump making a crackdown on legal and illegal immigration a central plank of his second White House term.

In Britain, it has become the dominant political topic, with the government under great pressure from rivals over how to deal with a record number of asylum claims and arrivals by migrants in small boats across the Channel.

Joining Mahmood for the talks will be U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Canada’s Gary Anandasangaree, Tony Burke, Australia’s Home Affairs Minister, and Judith Collins from New Zealand.

As well as people smuggling, the group will discuss new measures to tackle those behind child sexual abuse online and how to stop the spread of deadly synthetic opioids, the Home Office said.

(Reporting by Michael Holden; Editing by Alex Richardson)