Representatives from the US, China and France are among 40 nations attending a two-day summit in London aimed at tackling illegal migration.

Launching the summit, UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the “vile trade” of people-smuggling profits from political divisions between affected countries, and warned against pitting “nations against one another”.

The international talks are seen as the first of their kind, with the UK government hopeful they will produce ideas that work.

Immigration is seen as a key issue for the government politically, with both the Conservatives and Reform UK accusing Labour of failing to get a grip on the issue.

Sir Keir is keen for the UK to be seen as leading the global response to irregular migration.

Officials from Vietnam, Albania and Iraq – countries from which many migrants have travelled to the UK – attended the summit at London’s Lancaster House, alongside French, Chinese and US representatives.

Tech giants Meta, X and TikTok also joined, alongside Kurdish leaders and Interpol to take part in discussions on how to disrupt a criminal trade worth an estimated $10bn (£7.7bn) a year.

Sir Keir told attendees: “There has never been a bigger gathering of people on this issue, building a truly international effort to defeat organised immigration crime.”

More than 6,000 people have crossed the Channel so far in 2025, making it a record start to a year for small boat arrivals.

Since the election, the government has announced a series of agreements with other countries in an effort to tackle the number of such arrivals.

Labour campaigned on a promise to scrap the previous government’s Rwanda scheme, arguing only international co-operation along the smuggling routes can tackle the issue.

The government said it had returned more than 24,000 individuals with no right to be in the UK since July.

Sir Keir said he had overseen similar cross-border schemes while director of public prosecutions to “foil numerous plots”, including preventing planes from being “blown up over the Atlantic”.

“I believe we should treat organised immigration crime in the same way,” he added.

He is also said: “This vile trade exploits the cracks between our institutions, pits nations against one another and profits from our inability at the political level to come together.”

Ahead of the summit, the Home Office announced that £33m would be spent to disrupt people-smuggling networks and boost prosecutions.

Border Security Minister Angela Eagle told BBC Breakfast that measures being put in place by the government would help “make a difference” to cut small boat crossings in the Channel, but that it would take time to get policies “operationalised”.

The summit will deliver “concrete outcomes” for nations in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and North America, according to the Home Office.

Among developments aimed at tackling illegal migration ahead of the gathering:

• £30m of funding for the Border Security Command will be used to tackle supply chains, finance and trafficking routes across Europe, the Balkans, Asia and Africa. A further £3m will help the Crown Prosecution Service increase its ability to deal with people-smuggling cases, the government said
• The government is expanding right-to-work checks to cover gig economy workers by making amendments to the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill. Businesses that do not carry out the checks could be fined up to £60,000, or face closures, director disqualifications and up to five years in prison
• Home Secretary Yvette Cooper signalled she wanted to crack down on the number of people who had arrived in the UK on a student or work visa and had gone on to claim asylum
• The Government is reviewing how Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), the right to family life, applies to migration cases, Cooper said. Several deportation attempts have been halted by how the ECHR clause has been interpreted in UK law
• Some £1 million in UK funding will go towards strengthened efforts to root out people-smuggling kingpins in Iraq’s Kurdistan region, the Home Office announced
• The UK has launched an advertising campaign on Vietnamese social media and messenger app Zalo, warning people about trusting people-smuggling gangs

On Sunday, Tory shadow minister Alex Burghart told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme that Labour should never have scrapped the Rwanda deportation plan.

Earlier, Cooper told the show that plans for new checks on unauthorised working would help cut levels of illegal migration.