Social media ads for Channel crossings to be banned under new offence

Anyone who advertises Channel crossings or fake passports on social media could face up to five years in prison under new plans to crack down on smuggling gangs.

Ministers are seeking to create a new offence that would also outlaw the promise of illegal working being promoted online and could carry a large fine.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has also said she plans to introduce a fast-track scheme to tackle the asylum backlog, with the aim to turn around decisions within weeks.

The Government is under pressure to speed up asylum processing and bring down small boat crossings, with arrivals passing more than 25,000 for 2025 so far on Wednesday – a record for this point in the year.

Assisting illegal immigration to the UK is already a crime, but officials believe a new offence will give more powers to police and other agencies to disrupt criminal gangs.

Around 80% of migrants arriving to the UK by small boat told officials they used social media during their journey, including to contact agents linked to people smuggling gangs, according to analysis by the Home Office.

“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,” the Home Secretary 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.”

She told The Sunday Times that Labour was planning a “major overhaul” of the asylum appeal process in the hope it would help to make a significant dent in the numbers.

“We need a major overhaul of the appeal [process] and that’s what we are going to do in the autumn… If we speed up the decision-making appeal system and also then keep increasing returns, we hope to be able to make quite a big reduction in the overall numbers in the asylum system, because that is the best way to actually restore order and control,” Ms Cooper said.

The aim would be to compress the process so decisions and returns could happen “within weeks”, the newspaper reported, citing a source familiar with the plans.

Ms Cooper had previously said she wanted to put a “fast-track” system for decisions and appeals in place so that people from countries considered safe would not sit in the asylum system for a long time.

“That would mean a fast-track system alongside the main asylum system, I think that would be really important in terms of making sure that the system is fair,” she told the Home Affairs committee in June.

“That will require legislation in order to be able to do that, as well as a new system design.”

The plans to tackle the online promotion of Channel crossings would see a new offence created under the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill already going through Parliament.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) already works with social media companies to remove posts promoting crossings, with more than 8,000 taken offline in 2024.

But the proposed new offence will give them more options of how to target gangs and their business models, NCA director general of operations Rob Jones said.

The case of a Preston-based smuggler jailed for 17 years for posting videos of migrants thanking him for his help could have been targeted under the proposed offence.

Albanian smugglers who used social media to promote £12,000 “package deals” for accommodation and a job in the UK on arrival would also be in scope.

The Conservatives said it was “too little, too late” and that only their proposal to automatically deport people who enter Britain via unauthorised routes can tackle small boat crossings.

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said: “Labour still has no clear plan to deter illegal entry, no effective enforcement and no strategy to speed up removals. This is a panicked attempt to look tough after months of doing nothing.

“The only clear and enforceable plan is the Conservative Deportation Bill, a no-nonsense strategy that allows us to detain illegal arrivals immediately and remove them without delay. The British public deserve focused action, not more of Labour’s dithering.”