That was said in Nieuwpoort, where the West Coast police zone – on World Refugee Day – represents a year of cooperation with the UK. However, further vigilance and cooperation is still needed to keep transmigration issues manageable in the future.

Nicholas Paelinck, West Coast Police Chief: “We’ve taken 175 actions in 2022, checked over 2,700 cars with foreign license plates. Runners were arrested. Now we’re seeing that they’re avoiding the West Coast. That doesn’t mean it will take long. There is huge investment by the UK in France: 62 million pounds. Technology, drones, night cameras to monitor the coast. If it’s too difficult there, they try from our shores.”

Frontex

Our ports are now safer and there is also the European Frontex programme. The West Flanders prosecutor’s office convicted around 120 people smugglers last year, with sentences of up to 15 years in prison. British cooperation also paid off here. Vincent Van Quickenborne, Minister of Justice: “They have a lot of information that they share with us. We open the network in Germany, because we can read addresses on cell phones. Safe house addresses, license plates, we use all that information to adjudicate.”

Dismantling a criminal smuggling network is one thing, saving human lives is another. Our country is also committed to dissuasion and prevention. Nicole De Moor, Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration: “Lots of migrants in boats or trucks. Imagine the horrific drama in Essex, where 49 Vietnamese lay dead in refrigerated containers. By working with the UK we are trying to avoid those things like that.”

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In the evening, at high tide, the patrol boat HMC Vigilant entered the port of Nieuwpoort. It is one of the UK’s four principal border guard ships in the fight against illegal migration and people smuggling at sea.