LONDON: Prime Minister Keir Starmer says he will double funding for Britain’s border security agency and treat people-smuggling gangs like terror networks in an attempt to stop migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats.
In a speech Monday to a meeting of the international police organization Interpol, Starmer will say the gangs behind irregular migration are a serious threat to global security.
Arguing that “the world needs to wake up to the severity of this challenge,” Starmer will say that “we’re taking our approach to counterterrorism, which we know works, and applying it to the gangs,” according to extracts released by his office.
He’ll call for more cooperation between law-enforcement agencies, closer coordination with other countries and unspecified “enhanced” powers for law-enforcement.
Starmer plans to increase the UK Border Security Command’s two-year budget from 75 million pounds ($97 million) to 150 million pounds ($194 million). The money will be used to fund high-tech surveillance equipment and 100 specialist investigators.
Like previous Conservative British governments, Starmer’s Labour Party administration is struggling to stop thousands of people fleeing war and poverty from trying reach the UK from France in flimsy, overcrowded boats.
More than 31,000 migrants have made the perilous crossing of one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes so far this year, more than in all of 2023, though fewer than in 2022. At least 56 people have perished in the attempts this year, according to French officials, making 2024 the deadliest since the number of channel crossings began surging in 2018.
Starmer leads a center-left government, and has raised some eyebrows in September when he visited Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni and praised her nationalist conservative government’s “remarkable” progress in reducing the number of migrants reaching Italy’s shores by boat.
Starmer will argue on Monday that “there’s nothing progressive about turning a blind eye as men, women and children die in the channel.”
The opposition Conservative Party argues that Starmer should not have scrapped the previous government’s plan to send some asylum-seekers who reach Britain by boat on one-way trips to Rwanda. Supporters of the proposal say it would act as a deterrent. Human rights groups and many lawyers say it is unethical and unlawful to send migrants thousands of miles to a country they don’t want to live in.
Starmer called the plan a “gimmick” and canceled it soon after he was elected in July. Britain paid Rwanda hundreds of millions of pounds for the plan under a deal signed by the two countries in 2022, without any deportations taking place.
Senior police and government officials from the 196 Interpol member states are attending the global police body’s four-day congress in Glasgow, Scotland.
On Tuesday, Brazilian police official Valdecy Urquiza is expected to be named the new general secretary of the Lyon, France-based organization, replacing Jürgen Stock of Germany.
UK leader Starmer tells Interpol he will treat people-smuggling gangs like terrorists
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UK leader Starmer tells Interpol he will treat people-smuggling gangs like terrorists
- Starmer plans to increase the UK Border Security Command’s two-year budget from 75 million pounds ($97 million) to 150 million pounds ($194 million)
New ‘superfood’ transforms livelihoods in India’s rural east
- Known as fox nut or lotus seed, makhana is rich in protein, dietary fiber, minerals
- Most of the world’s makhana production is in Bihar, one of India’s poorest states
BIHAR: Wading through knee-deep, stagnant water, Mahesh Mukhia plunges his hands into the mud, pulling up handfuls of sludge that he and others toss into a large, partially submerged basket.
After a while, they shake the basket to drain away the water and debris. What remains is makhana — round black seeds that have lately gained popularity as India’s new superfood.
A regional Indian snack, also known as fox nut or lotus seed, makhana is the edible seed of the prickly waterlily. The plant grows in freshwater ponds and wetlands in southern and eastern Asia.
After makhana seeds are handpicked from pond beds, cleaned, and sun-dried, they are roasted at high heat so their hard black shells crack open and release the white, popcorn-like puffed kernels, which are eaten as snacks or used in dishes.
It has long been known for its nutritional value — high in plant-based protein and dietary fiber, the seeds are also rich in minerals and gluten-free — which over the past few years have helped it gain global attention and are transforming farmlands in Bihar, one of India’s poorest states.
“Earlier, people were not researching it but now, after research, makhana’s nutritional values have been highlighted. Now this is a superfood. That’s why demand is growing everywhere,” said Mahesh Mukhia, a farmer in Kapchhahi village in Bihar’s Darbhanga district, whose family has been harvesting the seeds for generations.
“The difference is that my forefathers did farming in a traditional way, but we’ve learnt to do it in a scientific way,” Mukhia told Arab News.
“There is Bhola Paswan Shastri Agricultural College in the neighboring Purnea district. I went there for training. After I started practicing farming the way I learnt, the yield increased by more than 30 percent.”
Makhana farming is highly labor-intensive, starting with the cultivation of water lilies in shallow ponds. The plants require constant monitoring as they are sensitive to water levels and pests.
Harvesting takes place between August and October. Workers pluck the seeds by hand and then dry them under the sun for several days before they can be processed.
The processing and roasting of makhana also require significant effort. The dried seeds are first de-shelled by manually cracking them, followed by multiple rounds of roasting to make them crisp.
Whole families are involved in the production, which has been expanding since 2020, when the state government introduced the Makhana Development Scheme.
Besides training in farming and processing, growers who cultivate fox nut receive $820 per hectare.
“The rate has also gone up. The makhana that we used to sell at 200-300 ($2-$3) rupees per kg is now selling at 1,000 ($12) or 1,500 rupees per kg,” Mukhia said.
“Makhana farmers are now making a profit. Those who are growing makhana are earning well, those who are popping it are also doing well, and those involved in trading are making profits too. We are getting good demand from everywhere. I just received an order for 25 tonnes recently.”
Bihar currently produces over 85 percent of India’s makhana and accounts for most of the world’s production, according to Ministry of Commerce and Industry estimates.
According to reports by the Indian Brand Equity Foundation and the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority, India accounts for roughly 85 to 90 percent of the world’s production.
Farmland where the crop is grown has increased many times over the past decade and can now be compared to the area covering half of New York City.
More than 600,000 people are involved in the makhana industry in Bihar, according to Niraj Kumar Jha, Darbhanga district’s horticulture officer.
“Earlier, we were cultivating 5,000 hectares in the Kosi and Mithlanchal regions. But now it has expanded to 35,000 hectares, and with many supportive schemes, farmers are increasingly encouraged to grow makhana,” he said.
“We are strengthening our marketing channels. We’ll reach the metro cities as well as world markets ... We can see that makhana is growing very popular, not only in India.”
