The 'relentless battle against smuggling gangs'

The battle against people smuggling gangs who are promoting Channel crossings online "is relentless", Paul Brisley from the National Crime Agency (NCA) says.

"Nearly 18,000 social media accounts, pages, and posts have been removed by [social media] companies since we started working with them in November 2021," he said.

Already this year more than 3,700 people have made the journey from France to Kent on small boats.

One person died and a further 69 were rescued when a boat sank off the coast of Calais on Friday evening.

Asylum and refugee campaigners say the government's focus on policing powers is at the expense of devising more safe routes for people genuinely in need.

The NCA started its social media action plan with Meta, X, TikTok and YouTube to help build understanding of how organised criminals used their platforms to advertise illegal services and limit gangs' ability to exploit victims and plan dangerous illegal crossings.

"The criminals offer migrant smuggling services, the supply of false documents and fraudulent assistance with visa applications," Mr Brisley said.

"The adverts show photographs of migrants in a boat, using videos of the migrants themselves as an endorsement of the service," the senior manager in the threat leadership command section at the NCA said.

He said incentives were offered for family groups, certain nationalities, women and children.

"They will also offer discounts if migrants take a video of their journey if it is successful, that they can then use to promote their service," he added.

A lot of the law enforcement activity is also focused on disrupting the physical supply of boating equipment to the Channel coast.

The NCA and its partner agencies have focused on nautical equipment being supplied from Turkey via the Balkans to Germany.

Dan Barcroft, the organised immigration crime threat lead at the NCA, said one example of that is in Bulgaria, where the authorities have introduced a protocol to stop and seize dangerous small boat equipment at the border.

"It has forced organised crime groups to take longer and costlier supply routes to try and get around that disruption," he said.

"Over 600 boats and engines have been seized."

He said equipment was hidden in the back of vans and lorries, and taken on different routes to Germany, avoiding the Bulgarian border.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper says new powers in the the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill will mean "we can step in much earlier to take action on those who are facilitating the boats".

However, Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp said it was "a weak bill from a weak government".

Border officials will get powers to seize migrants' phones in the search for intelligence about who helped them cross the Channel.

Those convicted of acts in preparation of smuggling, such as buying boat parts, face up to 14 years in jail, in an attempt to tackle gangs at a far earlier stage in their preparations, the government says.

A new offence of endangering lives at sea could lead to the prosecution of anyone arriving in the UK on a small and unsafe boat who has been involved in intimidating or coercing others passengers to take part in the journey, or who has refused to be rescued outside of British waters.

Asylum and refugee campaigners say the government's focus on policing powers is at the expense of devising more safe routes for people genuinely in need.

Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, said the government was right to tackle smuggling gangs.

"But we are very concerned that by creating new offences, many refugees themselves could also be prosecuted."

The Home Office said new measures to tackle people-smuggling gangs have been agreed by the UK and France, with more than £7m of existing funds redirected towards a "stronger" law enforcement response on migrant Channel crossings.

The UK has also signed a "road map" agreement with France aimed at bolstering co-operation to tackle people smuggling.

British and French representatives are due to meet in May as part of the new agreement to strengthen partnership between the two countries on migration.

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