New powers for law enforcement to tackle small boats crossings

The Government has introduced crucial new border security legislation, to empower law enforcement going after the people smuggling gangs responsible for migrant deaths in the Channel.  

This week, the Home Secretary announced bold new counter-terror style powers to equip Border Force, Immigration Enforcement, the National Crime Agency and police, to go further than ever before to smash the gangs and disable their business model. 

Measures in the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, introduced to Parliament on Thursday (30 January), take inspiration from counter-terror laws, which allow officers to intervene and arrest suspected people smugglers at a much earlier stage, before a crossing has taken place.  

The powers will make it easier to seize mobile phones and laptops believed to be involved in smuggling operations, as well as make it illegal to supply or handle items suspected of being used for immigration crime. This could be the selling or handling of small boat parts with those caught facing a prison sentence of up to 14 years.    

The Bill will create new offences against collecting information to be used by organised criminals preparing for boat crossings. This includes arranging departure points, dates and times, with clear links back to the gangs facilitating the dangerous crossings. 

We will introduce new laws to prosecute the possession and supply of equipment used in people-trafficking and other serious organised crime, including the vehicle concealments that smugglers use to hide their illicit cargoes of human beings, cash, drugs and guns, and the templates for 3D printed firearms that we know are being used by British gangsters and others to avoid firearms control. 

And this Bill seeks to address all forms of people smuggling. Too often our Border Force staff have discovered cases of migrants being crammed into the back of lorries, hidden in the smallest of spaces for hours, or even days, on end. Sometimes, when they've been left without access to air or water, the discovery has come too late.  

We will bolster data sharing by the DVLA and Customs to give our law enforcement agencies more up to the minute data on the lorry trailers coming into our country, who they belong to, and what they are supposed to contain.  

That will help us to identify quickly when suspect vehicles are on the move, or individuals with a history of offending are back on their usual routes, so we can catch those involved in the worst people smuggling practices and put them behind bars instead.   

We will also take action against sham lawyers providing so-called 'immigration advice' – another cog in the machine of migrant exploitation – making millions from the desperation of others. 

For most of these individuals, the legal advice they provide is a series of lies about how to evade UK immigration controls or play the asylum system, all provided in return for hefty fees – despite having nothing to do with our actual laws. 

That is why we plan to strengthen the powers and tools available to the Immigration Advice Authority, enabling them to clamp down on unregulated advisers and leave them in no doubt as to the consequences if they attempt to undermine our border security.    

Border Security and Asylum Minister Angela Eagle said: 

“This week we have introduced new, game changing legislation to protect our borders.  

“Based on the counter-terror laws we use to keep our nation safe from Islamist plots, this Bill will transform our capabilities to go after the organised crime gangs behind the lethal trade in small boats crossing the Channel.   

“In the past six years smuggling gangs have built an entire criminal industry from crossings – and they've been allowed to get away with it. 

“We are finally taking them on with a serious, credible Plan for Change, by unleashing tactics to go further than ever before, brokering landmark deals with international partners and surging returns of illegal migrants. 

“We have seen that one-off gimmicks do not work, but this new legislation will have real, tangible effects which disable organised criminality at the root.” 

This new legislation will disrupt the gangs alongside a range of other essential activity to secure the border, build stronger international partnerships to smash the gangs and prevent people from attempting to come to the UK illegally in the first place.  

For example, this week the Government also announced new multi-million-pound funding to tackle the root causes of migration and prevent people coming to the UK. Accompanied by Border Security Commander, Martin Hewitt, the Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, met with counterparts in Tunisia to discuss ways of strengthening cooperation on both countries' fight against people smuggling and irregular migration. They met members of the Tunisian National Guard who are using UK-supplied drones and night vision technology to intercept small boats carrying irregular migrants under the cover of darkness.  

During the visit, the Foreign Secretary announced a new package of up to £5 million to boost UK funded programmes in the region, to upskill migrants in-country and discourage them from making dangerous small boats journeys to Europe, including to the UK, and undermining the country's border security.  

The UK has also announced up to £1 million of funding to the International Organisation for Migration's Assisted Voluntary Returns & Reintegration (AVRR) Programme, to support transiting migrants who have no legal right to be in Tunisia and to return and reintegrate them to their home country.   

Border Security Commander Martin Hewitt said: 

“The new legislation will help empower teams on the ground to go further and act faster when dismantling organised criminality. 

“Meanwhile, our international partners – like Tunisia – play a vital role in the UK's efforts to combat irregular migration, organised immigration crime and the harm both cause to communities at home and abroad.  

“Across the board we are tackling this problem at source, preventing migrants from making dangerous journeys in the first place, saving lives and delivering on the government's promise to secure the UK's borders. 

This week's new legislation will put the Border Security Commander's role on a legal footing, meaning they will have the authority to convene partners across law enforcement and set strategic priorities for achieving the Home Secretary's goals – these will be shared with partners like the NCA as part of their ongoing work upstream to target people smuggling networks as well as cohering the work of UK law enforcement and government agencies across the border security system. 

It will also introduce specific measures to prevent further loss of life and harm in dangerous, unseaworthy boats, by making it a criminal offence to endanger another life at sea, with perpetrators facing up to five years in prison. 

This tough new action demonstrates the Prime Minister and Home Secretary's commitment to giving law enforcement the tools and powers they need to protect the integrity of the UK border as we put in place a serious, credible plan to restore order to our asylum system. 

Since July, we have already surpassed our pledge to deliver the highest rate of removals since 2018, with 16,400 people with no right to be in the UK removed since this government took power. And we have ramped up our enforcement against illegal working by 32% as we look to end the false promise of jobs sold to migrants by people smugglers.  

This week Immigration Enforcement teams made 13 arrests for illegal working, including six during a visit to a Dairy Farm in Wales on Tuesday (29 January), where officers descended on the business's premises in Llangedwyn, acting on intelligence of illegal working. Meanwhile in Cheshire, Immigration Enforcement teams worked with local police to make seven illegal working arrests at car washes and convenience stores (27 January).  

These operations are in addition to a stream of major people smuggling arrests through a renewed focus on joint international investigations involving the NCA. This includes 3 arrests this month in Iraq's Kurdistan region as a result of a joint operation between the NCA and local law enforcement, the first of its kind.