“Germany will tighten its law to make it easier to prosecute those helping to smuggle migrants to the UK, as part of a new plan agreed between the two countries.
Facilitating people-smuggling is not technically illegal in Germany currently, if it is to a third country outside the EU - which, following Brexit, includes the UK.
Under the new agreement, the Home Office says Germany has pledged to make the activity a clear criminal offence.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the "ground-breaking" agreement would help tackle the criminal gangs organising small boat crossings.
The Conservatives said the plan did not "go far enough" and would not provide the deterrent necessary to reduce crossings.
Earlier this year, a five-month long BBC investigation exposed the significant German connection to small boat crossings in the Channel, with people-smugglers operating in the west German city of Essen.
The new joint UK-German agreement comes as the Home Office's own Border Security Command warns that Channel crossings "are the most dangerous they have ever been".
Charlie Eastaugh, director of international operations at the command, told the BBC: "We've seen tyre inner tubes being used in place of life jackets, it's extraordinarily dangerous, they are death traps”
So, the Conservatives say it doesn’t go far enough but it’s more than they achieved. Doubt if it will get much publicity from the news media, though 
Last letters become first - March 26
WORD PAIRS -APRIL 2026 (Old thread full )
