Social media users who tout illegal routes into the UK face up to five years in prison as the Home Office continues its attempt to crack down on small boat crossings.
On Monday, ministers will activate part of the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act, passed last year, to clamp down on adverts telling migrants how they can circumvent immigration checks.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) Online Communications Centre will trawl through thousands of social media accounts as part of the campaign.
The latest measures form part of a broader effort to curb illegal immigration and tackle the threat posed by Reform UK amid surging approval ratings for Nigel Farage’s party, with border security minister Alex Norris saying his message to people smugglers is: “We are coming after you.”
Immigration authorities already have the power to target social media users, but only if they can prove online content directly led to a migration offence.
The NCA’s work saw more than 10,000 social media accounts, pages and posts linked to people smuggling shut down last year, which was a record according to the government.
But the new offence will target social media users posting adverts before migrants arrive on UK soil.
It is thought so-called “service agents”, middlemen who link migrants up with facilitators for small boats crossings and other routes, could be targeted with the new powers.
Speaking to the Press Association, Mr Norris said: “Social media ads promoting the corrupt promise of a life and work in the UK are truly sickening.
“To the people smugglers peddling this content, whether you are selling your vile trade online through ‘golden package deals’, supplying boat equipment or researching routes, we are coming after you.
“I will not stop until we’ve restored order and control to our borders.”
One social media post thought to be in the scope of the offence, seen by PA, advertised “by truck – safe reach London UK” in two hours from France.
Another TikTok post, written in Pashto, offered a one-hour “jet boat” from France to London at a cost of 4,000 dollars, according to a government translation.
A third post, a Facebook comment also in Pashto, included a phone number, “if anyone wants to go to Turkey, Iran, Iraq, France, Germany, Italy, London, Austria, Switzerland”.
On a visit to Ethiopia this week, the foreign secretary will unveil plans for closer cooperation on illegal migration after UK government assessments indicated that an increasing proportion of total arrivals across the Channel and across the Mediterranean are coming from the Horn of Africa.
The new co-operation will include job creation partnerships backed by UK investment to tackle the economic drivers of illegal migration, the Foreign Office said, as well as new partnerships with Ethiopian authorities to tackle criminal smuggler gangs and speed up returns.
The Foreign Secretary will sign a Joint Development Agreement this week to take forward two energy transmission projects totalling over $400m developed by Gridworks – a British International Investment company that delivers UK investment across Africa – as well as providing more funding and support for Ethiopian law-enforcement agencies.
The latest measures come just days after the home secretary admitted that more migrants have come to the UK under the government’s flagship ‘one in, one out’ scheme than have been deported to France – despite the scheme being aimed at reducing the number of people who make the dangerous crossing.
Some 350 asylum seekers have been brought to Britain from France under the scheme, which started in September last year, compared to just 281 people who have been removed.
A total of 933 people have arrived in the UK by crossing the English Channel in small boats this year so far. No one has made the dangerous journey since January 20.
Despite Labour being elected on a pledge to “smash the gangs” and curb small boat crossings, nearly 65,000 people have made the journey to Britain since Labour was elected in July 2024.
With critics increasingly saying the government had failed to get a grip on the issue, ministers were last year forced to unveil sweeping reforms to the asylum system.
In November, Ms Mahmood announced plans to rewrite how Britain grants refuge to those fleeing conflict and upheaval– an overhaul she insisted is needed because the “pace and scale of change destabilised communities”.
She promised bring forward a Bill to change how the right to family life under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) is applied in migration court cases, meaning only those with immediate relatives, like children or parents, will be able to remain in the UK in future.
The home secretary also announced plans to change the law so that multiple attempts to appeal against refusals for asylum will no longer be allowed.
And just this week, Sir Keir Starmer announced during his trip to China that he had negotiated a deal with the Chinese authorities aimed at preventing boat motors made in the country from ending up in the hands of people smugglers.
Some 60 per cent of the boats which crossed the Channel last year had motors made in China.
But the government has also faced criticism for copying Reform UK after launching a new TikTok account earlier this year showing videos boasting about deportations and arrests, and sharing videos on social media of illegal working raids.
Source: UK Politics - www.independent.co.uk
