Five Eyes meeting to focus on ‘smashing’ people smuggling gangs

The UK will host ministers from allied countries with an aim to boost border security, tackle other crime issues

Reading Time:2 minutes

A group of migrants on an inflatable dinghy leave the coast of northern France in an attempt to cross the English Channel to reach Britain. File photo: Reuters

Published: 4:37am, 8 Sep 2025Updated: 10:05am, 8 Sep 2025

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, newly appointed British Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said on Sunday.

The ministers from the Five Eyes intelligence sharing network – the US, 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,” said 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 US 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 US Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Canada’s Gary Anandasangaree, Tony Burke, Australia’s Home Affairs Minister, and Judith Collins from New Zealand.

Select Voice

Choose your listening speed

Get through articles 2x faster

1.25x

250 WPM

Slow

Average

Fast

00:0000:00

1.25x