UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer urged dozens of countries to collaborate to dismantle migrant smuggling gangs "once and for all" when he opened an immigration crime summit on Monday.

Starmer is seeking to crack down on would-be asylum seekers arriving in England on flimsy small boats and has brought together delegates from more than 40 nations for the two-day London meeting.

The interior ministers of France and Germany were among those attending the Organised Immigration Crime Summit. China and the United States also sent representatives.

The UK government is struggling to stop undocumented migrants embarking on dangerous boat journeys across the Channel from France.

"This vile trade exploits the cracks between our institutions... and profits from our inability at the political level to come together," Starmer said.

He argued that resources and intelligence must be shared and that governments need to "tackle the problem upstream at every step of the people-smuggling routes".

"There's nothing progressive or compassionate about turning a blind eye to this," Starmer added.

Britain's Home Office (interior ministry) billed the gathering as "the first major international summit in the UK to tackle the global emergency of illegal........

© International Business Times