Suspected people traffickers will face phone bans, social media blocks and travel restrictions under new interim orders that can be in place before any conviction, which ministers say will drastically speed up curbs on activity.
The crackdown will form part of the government’s border security bill expected to be published in the coming weeks, amid new highs in the number of people arriving in the UK in 2024. The number of people crossing the Channel in small boats was up by a quarter on the previous year, figures show.
In the last days of December alone, 1,776 people crossed the Channel in 38 boats despite various Home Office and National Crime Agency initiatives to prevent crossings, seize dinghies and arrest people smugglers.
Ministers will hope the new orders in England and Wales – where breaches will lead to up to five years in prison – will make the activities of suspected traffickers far harder. But several migration experts said the new enforcement was likely to be only a minimal deterrent.
Curbs could include travel restrictions and a ban on laptop, mobile phone usage and accessing social media networks, including via a third party, as well as restrictions on meeting or communicating with other individuals and on accessing money. The high court would determine the length of the restrictions.
The interim orders will be a new addition to the serious crime prevention orders, which the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, said were intended to be a swifter solution that could be applied to suspects immediately by the high court.
But Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, said it was unlikely tougher enforcement alone would make a difference to the figures.
“Further enforcement action alone without also addressing the reasons why people are willing to put their lives at risk in the first place is likely to lead to more dangerous journeys and more human tragedies as men, women and children from countries such as Afghanistan and war torn Sudan seek safety to be with family and communities already settled in the UK,” he said.
“The government should set out a strategy for safe and legal routes as a clear priority for 2025.”
A serious crime prevention order is a civil order which the court can impose to prevent a person’s involvement in dangerous crimes, including when a person has not been convicted of any crime. But the imposition can be complex and lengthy process.
The new bill will propose to allow the National Crime Agency, police and other law enforcement agencies to apply directly to the high court to impose immediate restrictions while a full order is considered.
Ministers will hope it will hamper traffickers’ activities while investigations and eventual prosecutions take place. Breaching an interim order could lead to up to five years in prison. Interim orders will be possible for a number of serious possible offences, from trafficking to drug smuggling, money laundering and firearms offences.
Madeleine Sumption, director of the Migration Observatory at University of Oxford, said the new enforcement actions would probably only make a difference at the margins of people trafficking, perhaps by making the crossings higher cost.
“Increased enforcement activity may well have an impact on people smugglers themselves, bringing more of them to justice,” she said.
“It is much less clear whether it will have any impact on the number of people crossing the channel in small boats. In theory, cracking down on gangs might make crossings more expensive, and perhaps price out some people at the margins. But the people smuggling trade across the Channel is decentralised and profitable. If one smuggler is taken down, new ones may simply move in to fill the space.”
Cooper said the changes were one of a number of measures the government would introduce this year to tackle criminal gangs.
“Dangerous criminal people-smugglers are profiting from undermining our border security and putting lives at risk. They cannot be allowed to get away with it,” she said in a statement announcing the measures.
“Stronger international collaboration has already led to important arrests and action against dangerous gangs over the last few months. We will give law enforcement stronger powers they need to pursue and stop more of these vile gang networks.
“Border security is one of the foundations of this government’s plan for change, including making people better off, delivering safer streets and strengthening our NHS, and we will do everything in our power to deliver for working people.”
Cooper said last month that the government had a moral responsibility to tackle Channel crossings but refused to set a deadline on when a target of getting the numbers to fall sharply would be met.
The government said it was also putting significant efforts into arresting the ringleaders of smuggling gangs. It cited a joint operation between the NCA and Belgian authorities that disrupted a major Afghan ring, said to have been responsible for transporting thousands of migrants into Europe and serious sexual offences against male migrant children.
Other measures in the bill will include new powers for the Border Security Command, a new initiative by the government which has faced some criticism from Conservatives for replicating similar schemes from the previous government.
Cooper said the government’s focus would also be on new returns agreements and processing the asylum backlog – which has seen almost 13,500 people deported since July but will mean thousands more are granted the right to stay.
Home Office sources have blamed an increase in crossings on the fact there were more clear weather days, saying there were 88 such days in the second half of 2024 compared with 50 in the second half of 2023.
Chris Philp MP, shadow home secretary, said: “Labour have a cheek claiming to be tough on people smuggling gangs – they voted against higher sentences for these very same smuggling gangs in the last parliament. As the NCA said, what would have stopped the boats would have been a removals deterrent – but Labour cancelled Rwanda before it even started.”
