Memorandum submitted by the Association
of Chief Police Officers
REFLEX
Reflex is the name given to the Government's
multi-agency response to organised immigration crime. It commenced
in 2000 under the chair of the Director General of the National
Crime Squad and includes key representatives from Government departments,
law enforcement and the intelligence community.
While primarily an operational group focused
on level 3 serious and organised crime, Reflex has, over the past
two years, also been instrumental in developing a level 2 response
with regional police forces and other law enforcement agencies
as well as developing projects to help reduce and prevent the
criminality both here and overseas.
Reflex has developed a shared strategy and targets.
It aims to reduce the harm caused by serious and organised criminality
involved in people smuggling and human trafficking by:
— Raising the risks that the criminals
must take;
— Rendering their illegal businesses
unprofitable; and
— Reducing the opportunities for them
to exploit communities
Led by intelligence, operational and preventative
measures target those crime groups involved in:
— The volume facilitation of illegal
migrants.
— Human trafficking (in particular
the trafficking of women and children).
— Running the criminal infrastructures
that serve both to facilitate illegal entry and to exploit the
illegal population once in the UK.
So far this year Reflex has disrupted or dismantled
30 organised crime enterprises. It has over 200 current intelligence
developments and operations underway. The majority of these are
targeting volume facilitation and trafficking. 18 operations currently
involve an element of illegal working. Nine of these within the
National Crime Squad and nine within regional police forces. Many
of these operations have links with other agencies such as DWP
and Immigration Service.
Reflex has an international focus and partner
agencies work with partners within the EU and outside the EU to
disrupt activities and strengthen systems to tackle the problem
in the transit and nexus points en route to the UK. Successful
collaborative projects have taken place in Bosnia & Herzegovina,
Serbia and Romania. The latter involved setting up an intelligence-led
unit within Romanian law enforcement that has produced impressive
results in its first full year of operation.
24 March 2004
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