LONDON — Interior and security ministers from the “Five Eyes” intelligence-sharing partnership of the U.K., U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand met Monday in London for talks focused on border security and tackling migrant-smuggling criminal gangs.
Newly appointed U.K. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood welcomed U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and the other leaders to the 18th-century headquarters of the Honorable Artillery Company.
The discussions also will take in work against child sexual abuse and the spread of opioids.
Mahmood, who was placed in the interior minister job in a shakeup of Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Cabinet on Friday, said the ministers would “agree new measures to protect our borders with our five eyes partners, hitting people-smugglers hard.”
Also attending were Canadian Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree, Australia’s Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke and Judith Collins, the attorney general and defense minister of New Zealand.
The far-flung countries are close allies with some common problems but also widely differ in their approaches to migration. The Trump administration’s program of street raids, mass detentions and large-scale deportations of unauthorized migrants has drawn domestic and international criticism and a host of legal challenges.
Britain’s center-left Labour government is struggling to bring down the number of migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats, some 30,000 so far this year. It faces calls from opposition parties to leave the European Convention on Human Rights in order to take tougher action.
The government says it won’t do that, but may tweak the interpretation of the rights convention in British law. It has struck a deal with France to return some migrants who cross the channel and is working on similar agreements with other countries.
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