There is insufficient evidence to categorically state that Project Kraken – a campaign at small ports urging the public to report anything suspicious to the authorities – is failing; that was the verdict of an official inspector, David Neal, on the scheme. To that put-down he added that he was ‘not convinced another relaunch of Project Kraken will be effective’.
The Home Office is proposing to re-launch Project Kraken (begun in 2008) this spring. To recap briefly, it’s aimed at encouraging harbour masters and marina managers, and more generally the public, to report suspicious or unusual activity at the coast or in coastal waters, whether people or other kinds of smuggling or crime. Kraken is led by Border Force, an arm of the Home Office, with input from police.
Neal’s inspectorate of borders and immigration visited two seaports – Whitby in Yorkshire; and Wells-next-the-Sea in Norfolk. As its report set out, Kraken or any such scheme rests on two things: that the public ‘are aware of it and know when to report something suspicious and to whom; and second, that this is reported effectively and efficiently by the relevant agency’, usually through the non-emergency number 101, or the charity Crimestoppers (although the report mentioned that Crimestoppers is no longer a Kraken partner). Or, you can report online at www.gov.uk/report-border-crime.
As the report set out, Kraken has only ‘generally low awareness’ among the public, and hence little gets reported. Another issue is common with the 101 line – long waiting times, ‘between 30 and 50 minutes’. On visiting the two places, inspectors heard of Kraken described as ‘dead in the water’. Only a handful of reports nationally along Britain’s 11,000 miles of coast are logged as Kraken-related.
As for the lack of official border presence at such small harbours, the inspectors learned that Border Force did not record and could not state for sure whether they visited Whitby ‘three or four times since 2018’, the year of a previous such inspection. And ‘promotional Project Kraken materials were often either outdated or non-existent’. Whitby is served by Border Force from Teesside, 30 miles away; while those covering Wells-next-the-Sea are based in Felixstowe, 90 miles away.
While the inspection found goodwill among coastal people to help to protect the border, ‘Border Force had not leveraged this goodwill’. The inspection report asked if there might be a better alternative to Kraken.
For the inspection report in full visit https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/an-inspection-into-the-effectiveness-of-border-forces-role-in-project-kraken-at-small-seaports. See also the government response.
Photo by Mark Rowe; Whitby gift shop sales window, summer 2021.
