Theresa May urges security alliance to work closely to combat terrorism

Terrorism is the "challenge of our generation", which is contributing to and exploiting mass migration, the home secretary has warned. To deal with the situation, Theresa May has urged the Five Eyes security alliance to work closely.

May has called for better intelligence-sharing and co-ordinated responses among the security alliance partners — the UK, the US, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. The alliance was created post World War II. During the Cold War era, the alliance also conducted surveillance and intelligence operations against the Soviet Union and its allies.

Speaking at a meeting of the alliance in Washington, May asked the partners to extend the "successful co-operation between our countries on issues of national security which we have built over past decades".

"I am clear that defeating terrorism requires a global response, and that we will not succeed by acting in isolation," May said, according to The Independent. "Extremism is spreading, threatening and taking lives, not just in our countries but in other lands. It thrives in the disorder created by fragile and failing states. It is contributing to, and in some cases exploiting, mass migration. It is turning the benefits of modern technology to its twisted ends."

May also urged the alliance partners to expand sharing of information on airline passenger lists and of terror financing details. "It is no good ensuring world class aviation security at home, if people are not properly screened at airports abroad," she said. "It is no good sharing intelligence with another country, if they cannot act on it effectively and it is no good fighting terrorism in and from Syria, if we can't help stabilise that country and its neighbours.

"[UK must go] well beyond traditional counter-terrorism policy" and counter-terrorism efforts at home and overseas should not be seen as "two separate entities. I am clear that defeating terrorism requires a global response, and that we will not succeed by acting in isolation.

"If we are to deal with this threat effectively, we can no longer look simply to domestic solutions. There must be international cooperation, a common approach, free flows of intelligence and information, and the closing of technological gaps which the extremists exploit."

According to reports, the annual net migration to Britain is at a record high of 336,000, while 1.8 million illegal migrants landed in the EU in 2015.

According to MigrationWatch, three million migrants will land in the EU in the next two years. Most of the migrants are those fleeing Africa and the Middle East countries gripped by humanitarian crisis.

More about Theresa May