Migrants disembark at the Port of Dover in southern England on Sunday from a Border Force vessel after they were intercepted crossing the English Channel. [Photo/Agencies]
Travel bans and restrictions on access to phones and social media are among new measures planned by the British government in its bid to tackle people-smuggling gangs, as part of a promised crackdown on the groups who organize those trying to enter the country illegally.
When it was elected last summer, the Labour Party government said one of its priorities would be to go after the groups behind the small boat crossings of the English Channel.
Last year saw nearly 37,000 people make the perilous journey across one of the world's busiest shipping lanes, between mainland Europe and the United Kingdom.
Dozens of people died making the crossing in 2024, but it is a risk that thousands remain willing to take because the UK currently has no legal facility in place to eject them.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said increased border security was one of the foundations of the government's "plan for change", and the new measures would "give law enforcement stronger powers they need to pursue and stop more of these vile gang networks".
Currently, movement-restricting measures called Serious Crime Prevention Orders, or SCPOs, can be applied to those involved in organized immigration crime, but the government wants to introduce faster, interim SCPOs, which would impose immediate limits while a more complete measure is considered by the courts.
Any breach of such an order could carry a jail sentence of up to five years.
"Dangerous criminal people-smugglers are profiting from undermining our border security and putting lives at risk," added Cooper. "They cannot be allowed to get away with it."
The 2024 official total of 36,816 migrants crossing the Channel was up 25 percent on 2023's figure, and the second-highest total since records began being kept in 2018, but 20 percent lower than the record highest, in 2022.
Welfare charity the Refugee Council said 2024 was also the deadliest year for Channel crossings, with at least 69 fatalities recorded, which is more than the total for the years between 2019 and 2023. Authorities in France have put the number of deaths as closer to 80.
The last fatal incident of 2024 was on Dec 29, when three people died and 48 were rescued from a boat off the coast of France.
Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, said tougher law enforcement alone was not likely to prove enough to significantly impact the figures, and a safe, legal route option was still required, to ensure people did not resort to such life-threatening measures.
An unwillingness to look at people's motivations for taking such risks "is likely to lead to more dangerous journeys and more human tragedies as men, women and children from countries such as Afghanistan and war-torn Sudan seek safety to be with family and communities already settled in the UK," he said.
