UK introduces terror-style laws to stop plotters behind people smuggling

Sweeping powers will make it an offence to collect information online to organise crossings

French police officers stand on the shore as migrants attempt to cross the English Channel. AFP

People smuggling gangs would face arrest even before they transport migrants in small boats across the English Channel under proposed new UK laws.

The powers would allow UK enforcement agencies to detain suspects even as they plan their operations. Currently even if they have strong reason to believe a smuggler is involved in this sort of criminality, police are unable to intercept them until much later, usually after a crossing has taken place.

The Border Security Asylum and Immigration Bill promises to give UK law enforcement what are described as counter-terrorism style powers to deal with the problem of small boats, which last year resulted in 77 migrants being killed making the crossing from northern France in flimsy vessels. Those based in Britain could be banned from using phones or laptops even before a case is proved under an interim order.

Those based outside the UK who would still need to be extradited if they were suspected of committing a crime linked to Britain. The Home Office gave the example of how the new laws would have been able to stop people convicted people smuggler Amanj Hasan Zada, before he was able to organise small boat crossings from his home in the UK. He was filmed firing his gun in the air at a party with musicians singing a song feting him as “the best smuggler”.

Investigators could have acted on their suspicions to arrest and charge him as there was evidence he was discussing moving migrants and purchasing vessels, all of which would be covered by the new laws. Instead they needed to prove a direct link before he could be arrested, convicted and jailed for 17 years.

The measures will see the implementation of Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s pledge to “smash the gangs” bringing migrants across the English Channel, a politically charged issue in the UK.

People such as Amanj Hasan Zada could be stopped much earlier under the proposed new laws. Photo: NCA

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said that for the past six years “criminal smuggling gangs have been allowed to take hold along our borders, making millions out of small boat crossings. This Bill will equip our law enforcement agencies with the powers they need to stop these vile criminals, disrupting their supply chains and bringing more of those who profit from human misery to justice.”

“These new counter-terror style powers, including making it easier to seize mobile phones at the border, along with statutory powers for our new Border Security Command to focus activity across law enforcement agencies and Border Force, will turbo-charge efforts to smash the gangs.”

The National Crime Agency, Immigration Enforcement and the police will be given wide-ranging powers, including:

• Interim Crime Serious Crime Prevention orders allowing restrictions to be placed on gangs, banning travel as well as internet or mobile phone use.
• Making it illegal to handle or supply items, such as boat parts, suspected of being used for organised immigration crime, with a maximum of jail sentence of 14 years.t organised crime.
• Making it illegal to handle or supply items, such as boat parts, suspected of being used for organised immigration crime, with a maximum of jail sentence of 14 years
• Allowing the arrest of people who view material online which could be used for organised immigration crime.
• Creating a new offence of collecting information with the purpose of planning a small boat crossing with clear links to gangs, such as researching routes or arranging departures.
• Endangering another life at sea will also become a criminal offence, which includes anyone aggressively preventing rescue, which has included migrants hanging children off the side of coastguard boats.

Other measures include better data-sharing between Britain’s DVLA driving licensing agency and the tax authorities to identify trailers which could be smuggling people or goods across borders.

Much people smuggling activity takes place outside the UK, with gangs based in northern France organising the crossings with boats made in Turkey and shipped across Europe. But the Home Office says it will use existing extradition treaties to prosecute smugglers under the new legislation if it can be shown there is a connection to the UK.

The new laws will allow UK law enforcement to build on its success in bringing people smugglers such as Amanj Hasan Zada and Hewa Rahimpur, both of whom are now serving long prison sentences.

Material used to make small boats being seized by police. Photo: NCA

The bill will also formally scrap the plan to take asylum seekers arriving by small boat to Rwanda to have their claims processed, which was introduced by the previous Conservative government of Rishi Sunak, and which was eventually rejected by the Supreme Court.

The new legislation comes in the wake of an agreement signed with Iraq for law enforcement officers to operate in the Kurdistan region, an area that has become a centre for people smuggling operations, as well as where many migrants themselves originate. Under the deal NCA officers have already taken part in an arrest operation in the region for the first time, detaining three alleged members of Zada's smuggling network.

Small boats have been the predominant recorded method of entry for irregular arrivals since 2020. In the year ending September 2024, there were 36,949 detected irregular arrivals, of which 81 per cent arrived by small boat.

In 2024, 36,816 migrants arrived to the UK on 695 small boats, an increase from 29,437 migrants on 602 small boats in 2023. The average number of people per boat has also increased, to 53 people per boat in 2024 from 41 people per boat in 2022. The high number of people per boat increases the danger of the crossings.

Asylum Matters executive director Louise Calvey said the Bill was repeating past mistakes. “This Bill was a chance to make the change that’s desperately needed in our asylum system," she said. "To tackle the backlog; to let people work while they await their asylum decision; to save lives by creating safe ways to seek asylum.”