The UK government has more than doubled the number of crime agency officers deployed to combat human smuggling in the past 18 months as it steps up efforts to stop the gangs behind illegal migration.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham said on a trip to the port of Dover that he would be “relentless” in addressing small-boat crossings and build on work that has seen National Crime Agency officers on the case increased to almost 800 from 376 at the start of 2025.
“The public don’t like the idea that the border looks like it’s not controlled,” Burnham said. “We need to bring back that control, but also we need to offer support for people who genuinely need it. So we’re just going to be relentless.”
Illegal migration has been a political flashpoint in the UK and has boosted support for Nigel Farage’s far-right Reform UK party. His uncompromising stance, declaring small boats an “invasion” and promising to detain and deport arrivals, has helped take the party to the top of opinion polls.
“People want to see this issue addressed. I heard that on the doorsteps in Makerfield,” Burnham said. “But we also need to build a system that offers safe routes for people as well, because that also takes away the selling point of the gangs.”
While small-boat migrant numbers this year are significantly lower than in 2025, some 2,000 have crossed the English Channel since Burnham became prime minister on July 20. The provisional estimate for the year to date is 14,526, 43% lower than last year and 14% below the equivalent period in 2024.
Burnham was visiting Dover’s Joint Command Room on Sunday to see the work the NCA and the Border Security Command are doing to protect UK shores. His Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood spent the day touring the NCA offices in Stratford, London, where she told reporters she was “doing whatever it takes to secure the border.”
Government efforts are beginning to “bear fruit,” Mahmood said, with more than 70,000 deportations since Labour took power in 2024, an increase of 41%. She said she shared the public’s concern about illegal migration “every time they see images of people crossing the Channel.”
The NCA was involved in almost 300 arrests last year and officers helped seize more than 1,109 small boats and engines bound for people smugglers since the 2024 election. Those could have facilitated 72,000 migrant crossings, the Home Office said.
Burnham and Mahmood were speaking shortly after the issue of illegal migration flared up in Europe following the crisis in Ceuta, a Spanish enclave in North Africa.
As many as 60,000 Moroccan migrants crossed into Ceuta last week, prompting several European Union nations to threaten border checks and even to suspend Spain from EU’s Schengen agreement that allows travel without border checks between member countries.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
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