Britain hopes a crackdown on people-smugglers’ social media ads will help curb Channel crossings

LONDON (AP) — Britain says people who advertise fake passports or people-smuggling services on social medial could face up to five years in prison, in the government’s latest effort to deter migrants from crossing the English Channel in small boats.

The government said Sunday that anyone convicted of creating online materials intended to break U.K. immigration law will face prison time and a large fine.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the aim was to stop the “brazen tactics on social media” used by smuggling gangs.

“Selling the false promise of a safe journey to the U.K. and a life in this country — whether on or offline — simply to make money, is nothing short of immoral,” she said.

Assisting illegal immigration to the U.K. is already a crime, but officials believe a new offense — part of a border security bill currently going through Parliament — will give police and prosecutors more powers to disrupt gangs that send migrants on perilous journeys across one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said the crime gangs are a threat to global security and should be treated like terror networks.

Since taking office a year ago, Starmer’s center-left Labour Party government has adopted powers to seize the assets of people-smugglers, beefed up U.K. border surveillance and increased law-enforcement cooperation with France and other countries to disrupt the journeys.

Despite that, more than 25,000 people have reached Britain by boat so far this year, an increase of 50% on the same period in 2024. Small boat crossings have become a potent political issue, fueled by pictures of smugglers piling migrants into overcrowded, leaky inflatable boats on the French coast.

Opposition parties say the government’s plans aren’t working — though the government argues the problems built up during 14 years when the Conservative Party was in power,

The Conservatives say Starmer should not have scrapped the previous government’s contentious and expensive plan to send migrants arriving by boat on a one-way trip to Rwanda.

“This is a panicked attempt to look tough after months of doing nothing,” Conservative immigration spokesman Chris Philp said.

The government says it will take time to clear a backlog of applications that has left thousands of migrants stuck in temporary accommodation — often hotels — without the right to work.

The hotels have become flashpoints for tension, attracting protests fueled by a mix of local concern, misinformation and anti-immigrant agitation.