Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether his Department has provided financial support to the Government of the Turks and Caicos Islands to manage the costs of irregular migration.

Following an increase in activity in 2018, the UK deployed a five-person team to review and support the Turks and Caicos Islands' (TCI) approach to managing migration and provided funding for TCI to upgrade their radar capability.

A comprehensive Maritime Security and Border Integrity Assessment of the Caribbean Overseas Territories and Bermuda was published in 2019 and a UK Security Advisor has been seconded to TCI since September 2019 to strengthen National Security capability on the Territory. This has led to the launch of TCI's first National Security Strategy, which addresses irregular migration as a key threat.

As of our ongoing commitment to support the Government of the Turks and Caicos Islands, the UK continues to provide financial and technical support for investigations into human trafficking, and is supporting TCI to establish a Defence Force which will assist the Maritime Police in protecting the Territory's borders.