People advertising illegal Channel crossings online could face up to five years in prison under a new offence the government plans to introduce.The offence, which the government is seeking to create under the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill currently going through Parliament, would form part of a crackdown on the number of migrants coming to the UK on small boats.Assisting illegal immigration to the UK is already a crime, but officials believe the offence would give police and other agencies more power to disrupt criminal gangs.Figures out last week showed more than 25,000 migrants have arrived in the UK via small boats in 2025 so far, a record for this point in the year.Earlier this week, the Conservatives called it a “national emergency”, and accused the government of “doing nothing” to stop the crossings.Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said the plan to target social media adverts was “too little, too late”.He said: “Tinkering at the edges won’t fix the problem.”He added the Conservatives’ Deportation Bill would allow police and other agencies to “remove illegal arrivals immediately and remove them without delay”.Labour pledged at the general election to “smash” people-smuggling gangs and reduce Channel crossing numbers.New measures have been introduced since, including increased intelligence sharing with other countries and strengthened border cooperation with France, including a plan to return some migrants.But Kevin Saunders, who was the UK’s chief immigration officer for 15 years until 2016, told BBC Breakfast there was still “no disincentive to people to come across the Channel”, despite the measures.The new UK-wide offence announced on Sunday would criminalise the creation of material for publica …
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[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nnPeople advertising illegal Channel crossings online could face up to five years in prison under a new offence the government plans to introduce.The offence, which the government is seeking to create under the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill currently going through Parliament, would form part of a crackdown on the number of migrants coming to the UK on small boats.Assisting illegal immigration to the UK is already a crime, but officials believe the offence would give police and other agencies more power to disrupt criminal gangs.Figures out last week showed more than 25,000 migrants have arrived in the UK via small boats in 2025 so far, a record for this point in the year.Earlier this week, the Conservatives called it a “national emergency”, and accused the government of “doing nothing” to stop the crossings.Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said the plan to target social media adverts was “too little, too late”.He said: “Tinkering at the edges won’t fix the problem.”He added the Conservatives’ Deportation Bill would allow police and other agencies to “remove illegal arrivals immediately and remove them without delay”.Labour pledged at the general election to “smash” people-smuggling gangs and reduce Channel crossing numbers.New measures have been introduced since, including increased intelligence sharing with other countries and strengthened border cooperation with France, including a plan to return some migrants.But Kevin Saunders, who was the UK’s chief immigration officer for 15 years until 2016, told BBC Breakfast there was still “no disincentive to people to come across the Channel”, despite the measures.The new UK-wide offence announced on Sunday would criminalise the creation of material for publica …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]
