The government has been accused of turning enforcement raids on illegal migrants into “clickbait online entertainment” after launching a new TikTok account showing videos boasting about deportations and arrests.
Launched by the Home Office on Tuesday, the “Secure Borders UK” account currently has just one video. With dramatic music playing in the background, it cuts together clips of immigration enforcement officers raiding homes and businesses and arresting people thought to be in the UK illegally, while key immigration statistics play across the screen.
It says: “Nearly 50,000 people returned or deported from the UK since July 2024. 83 per cent increase in illegal working arrests. 77 per cent increase in illegal working raids. And it’s just getting started,” the video boasts, as a clip of a plane taking off plays.
The account has been heavily criticised by both opposition political parties and refugee charities, who have said it “fuels fear, legitimises racism and makes life more dangerous for migrant communities”.
Freedom from Torture accused the government of being “hooked on the cheap political points it can score” by turning enforcement raids into “clickbait online entertainment”.
“This is just more populist, dehumanising social media content designed to distract and divide us,” Sile Reynolds, head of asylum advocacy at the charity, said.
“This style of political communication provokes the kind of anxiety and fear that fuelled the summer riots and the recent violence directed at asylum hotels.
“Caring people across the country are increasingly alarmed by this government’s use of performative cruelty towards migrants, including plans to make refugees wait 20 years before they can settle here.”
Meanwhile, Josephine Whitaker-Yilmaz, head of advocacy at Praxis, a charity that supports migrants and refugees, accused the government of “treating the public like fools”.
She added: “Desperate to beat Reform in the polls, Labour is recycling their talking points on migration instead of showing real leadership at a time when racial tensions are dangerously high.”
Ms Whitaker-Yilmaz continued: “Broadcasting dehumanising footage that frames migrants as criminals does nothing to make ordinary peoples’ lives better. It fuels fear, legitimises racism and makes life more dangerous for migrant communities.”
Refugee charity Care4Calais also said the “gimmick” would have no influence on the increasing number of migrants crossing the Channel in small boats.
“The global displacement of people is caused by war, torture and persecution. It is not influenced by social media reels,” Steve Smith, CEO of Care4Calais said.
“The only way the government can stop Channel crossings is to create safe routes for people to claim asylum in the UK. None of the so-called deterrents and gimmicks like TikTok accounts work.”
Meanwhile, shadow home secretary Chris Philp dubbed the video “yet another pathetic gimmick that won’t work”.
“The idea that putting some posts on TikTok will stop illegal immigrants is laughable – just like the government’s previous gimmick to smash the gangs.
“The Labour government is putting illegal channel immigrants up in hotels, allowing rampant illegal working and allowing 95 per cent of them to stay.”
But Downing Street said the TikTok page will “tackle head-on the false narratives and misinformation online that is used by fake news operators to use social media to mislead the British public” on the issue of migration.
The prime minister’s official spokesperson said the channel “will help to engage a wider audience on illegal migration and speak directly to people smugglers by showing them the truth that they will face detention and deportation”.
The new account comes just months after the Trump administration faced criticism for using the voiceover of a British airline advert to seemingly mock a group of migrants being deported in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
The UK Home Office video was published on the same day that new figures revealed a significant surge in enforcement actions against illegal working in the UK, with both visits to businesses and arrests reaching their highest levels since records began in 2019.
Data indicates that 12,791 visits were conducted in 2025 to establishments such as nail bars, car washes, barbers, and takeaway shops – a 57 per cent increase from the 8,122 visits recorded the previous year.
Arrests related to illegal working also hit a record high, with 8,971 people apprehended last year – a nearly 59 per cent rise compared to the 5,647 arrests made in 2024. Of those arrested, 1,087 people have so far been removed from the UK.
It comes as part of a broader effort to crack down on illegal immigration and tackle the threat posed by Reform UK amid surging approval ratings for Nigel Farage’s party.
The Home Office also said visits were up 77 per cent and arrests were up 83 per cent since Labour came to power.
Some 17,483 visits and 12,322 arrests were recorded between July 2024 and December last year, up from 9,894 and 6,725, respectively, across January 2023 to June 2024.
Of the arrests, 1,726 people have been returned so far, up 35 per cent on the 1,283 removed from visits in the previous 18-month period.
Among visits by immigration enforcement, officers arrested 13 people at a warehouse in Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex, on November 25, which led to 11 Brazilian and Romanian nationals being detained for removal from the UK.
On 16 December, officers arrested 30 Indian and Albanian men at a construction site in Swindon, Wiltshire, the Home Office said, nearly all of whom were detained for removal from the UK, including five released on immigration bail.
Immigration enforcement was given £5m to arrest, detain and remove migrants working illegally at sites such as takeaways, beauty salons and car washes.
Officers have also been wearing body-worn cameras since September to help with arrests and prosecutions.
Elsewhere, tighter right-to-work checks have also been introduced under the government’s new Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act, forcing casual, temporary or subcontracted workers to have to prove their status.
Employers who fail to carry out checks could face up to five years in prison, fines of £60,000 for each illegal worker they have employed, and having their business closed.
Source: UK Politics - www.independent.co.uk
