The Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, introduced in Parliament on the 30th of January, has given wide counterterrorism-inspired powers to border enforcement agencies in the UK.
These intelligence-based measures seek to take preventative action against small boats arriving on British shores. Since 2018, 150,000 small boats have arrived, with more than 1000 people reaching the UK in 2025. Yvette Cooper states the criminal gangs have been undermining the police for ‘far too long’. The Shadow Secretary of State claims these changes are only a ‘minor tinkering’ from the previous government.
Angela Eagle MP said in a Radio 4 interview that the bill will allow agencies to ‘operationalise’ activities against organised people smuggling gangs, giving Border Security Commander the final word on strategic priorities. The handling and selling of items – such as small boat parts – suspected of use by organised crime groups is now an offence, attracting a maximum 14-year sentence. Information spreading and the supply of forged ID documents have also been criminalised, lowering the threshold for arrest and allowing law enforcement to intervene much earlier.
Enver Solomon, chief executive of Refugee Council, voiced concern that refugees have and will be prosecuted in a ‘gross miscarriage of justice’. New offences such as ‘endangering another life’ and ‘refusing rescue’ during sea crossings have also raised criticisms from charities and campaign groups. They argue the new counterterrorism approach may ‘criminalise’ migrants, and those who travel with a child may even face prosecution.
Natasha Tsangarides, at Freedom from Torture, states that cracking down on migration methods will only make journeys ‘more dangerous’ and said that policies would be better directed at ‘stopping the torture’ in migrants’ origin countries. Kier Starmer, focussed on the ‘off the scale’ net migration, accuses the Conservatives of ‘running an open border experiment’ and aims to put in a ‘hard graft’ to get numbers down.
The government said in a press release that the bill’s motivation is to prevent the organisation of dangerous crossings which are continuing across the ‘freezing’ channel and widening the scope with new offences to offer ‘stronger tools’ to ‘dismantle the gangs’.