Criminal gangs who advertise small boat crossings across the English Channel or fake passports online could spend up to five years behind bars under new legislation.
Ministers are looking to create a new offence under the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill already going through Parliament in an attempt to crackdown on criminal gangs promoting Channel crossings on the Internet, The Mirror reports.
Under the proposed law, offenders could receive a prison sentence of up to five years and a hefty fine.
Assisting illegal migration is already a crime, but officials hope the changes will give more powers to police to disrupt criminal gangs.
Around 80 percent of migrants arriving to the UK by small boats say they used social media to find someone associated with a criminal gang who could smuggle them into the country.
According to the Home Office, many of those who make the perilous crossings across the Channel are sold a ‘false narrative’ about their ability to live and work in the UK.
‘Selling the false promise of a safe journey to the UK and a life in this country – whether on or offline – simply to make money, is nothing short of immoral,’ Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said.
‘These criminals have no issue with leading migrants to life-threatening situations using brazen tactics on social media. We are determined to do everything we can to stop them – wherever they operate.’
The potential new measure comes the Government announced last week that members of people-smuggling gangs who send migrants across the Channel in flimsy boars will face financial sanctions.
The new powers target smugglers and those who supply them with money and equipment.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the measures are ‘the world’s first sanctions regime targeted at gangs involved in people smuggling and driving irregular migration, as well as their enablers.’
Those in breach of the rules can have UK assets seized, be barred from using British banks and be banned from entering Britain.
The government said the new rules are authorised by existing sanctions legislation.
British lawmakers won’t get a chance to debate them until they return from a summer break in September.
Keir Starmer has pledged to stop criminal gangs sending thousands of migrants each year on dangerous journeys across one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.
The Prime Minister has said the crime gangs are a threat to global security and should be treated like terror networks.
Some 37,000 people crossed the channel in 2024, and more than 22,000 so far in 2025 – an increase of about 50 percent from the same period last year.
Dozens of people have died attempting the journey.
