Crackdown on social media migrant adverts to begin, Home Office says
Social media users who tout illegal routes into the UK face up to five years in prison, starting on Monday.
The Home Office will activate part of the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act, passed last year, as part of its crackdown on adverts telling migrants how they can circumvent immigration checks.
Border security minister Alex Norris said his message to people smugglers is: “We are coming after you.”
The National Crime Agency (NCA) Online Communications Centre will trawl through thousands of social media accounts as part of the crackdown.
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.
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 Stories-style post thought to be in scope advertised “by truck – safe reach London UK” in two hours from France.
A 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”.
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.
The Government continues its effort to clamp down on people smuggling gangs and others helping migrants to make the journey.
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.
By PA reporter