Pakistan, UK panel to tackle illegal migration

Pakistan and the United Kingdom on Friday signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) to promote bilateral collaboration on law enforcement and criminal justice issues.

Interior Minister Syed Mohsin Raza Naqvi and Home Secretary of UK James Cleverly witnessed the signing of the LoI held at the UK Home Office. Pakistan's High Commissioner to UK Dr Muhammad Faisal signed the LoI on behalf of the Government of Pakistan, according to a press release.

The LoI is aimed at collaboration between Pakistan and the UK to work together on law enforcement cooperation and criminal justice issues. It specifically addresses the issues to tackle illegal migration and organised immigration crime, and to exploring future opportunities that benefit both countries.

It will also facilitate liaison between the UK and Pakistan law enforcement agencies, in support of joint efforts to tackle transnational crime, including narcotics control, investigations of serious criminality and organised immigration crime.

Under the implementation mechanism, the cooperation will be overseen by a joint steering committee, chaired by the Ministry of Interior (MoI) and comprising representatives of Interior Ministry, National Police Bureau, British High Commission (supported by the UK Home Office), the programme team and other relevant agencies.

This agreement will help establish cooperation in the ability to share international criminal conviction data and analytics to prepare pre-emptive plans for crime prevention.

Improving joint collaboration to tackle illicit finance threats, detecting criminality at air and sea borders, improving ability to facilitate extradition requests from the UK to Pakistan and Pakistan to the UK are also part of the LoI.

Progress on achievements under the LoI would be undertaken through yearly review.