The city has seen a spike in knife crime as well as acid and machete attacks while the police is struggling with manpower at its lowest level since 1985 because of spending cuts. The courts, prisons, and immigration agencies have also been hit hard by similar austerity measures.
The spending cuts have not stopped large sums of money that continue to flow into the foreign aid budget, which soaks up £14.7 billion. Moreover, British international aid is allegedly being appropriated for organised criminals by corrupt foreign officials, according to reports by the National Crime Agency (NCA).
United Kingdom has become ensnared in human trafficking and corrupt politicians and state officials overseas who provide services and safe haven for international criminal networks. The NCA has been conducting several investigations into “cash being stolen or even handed to crime syndicates in poverty-stricken countries by their own corrupt regimes”.
Experts have warned that current British aid policies may be fueling migration rather than helping to stabilise African and other regions. While the Department for International Development (DfID), which is responsible for the aid budget, they have not made any progress in addressing serious migration issues.
“Criminals are continuing to develop international connections to increase the reach of their activity, and to maximise profits,” said NCA Director-General Lynne Owens.
“We are also seeing ever-increasing crossover between crime threats, with finance at the heart of this. Organised criminals involved in smuggling of people or firearms also supply drugs, and the relationship between organised immigration crime and modern slavery is becoming more apparent.”
Despite its clear lack of support among the British public in general and Tory voters in particular, the foreign aid budget has not been changed.
India, a foreign aid recipient, still struggles with serious poverty, but has enough money for space programmes, nuclear weapons systems, and its own foreign aid budget.
“It can’t be right that we can afford to help third world countries while we seem to be unable to offer more than third world care to our elderly citizens,” remarked the former Tory pensions minister, Baroness Altmann.