The UK government and social media giants have announced a voluntary cooperation to speed up efforts to combat people smuggling online, such as criminals exchanging information about unauthorised English Channel crossings. The initiative was announced by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
In a statement over the weekend, Sunak said that the action will help him achieve his “stop the boats” goal of cracking down on illegal migrants who are being paid enormous sums of money by human traffickers to attempt perilous maritime crossings.
“To stop the boats, we have to tackle the business model of vile people smugglers at source,” averred Sunak in press statement published by 10 Downing Street.
“That means clamping down on their attempts to lure people into making these illegal crossings and profit from putting lives at risk. This new commitment from tech firms will see us redouble our efforts to fight back against these criminals, working together to shut down their vile trade,” he added.
The UK government and Internet companies have formed a new cooperation to further attempts to further crackdown on the strategies used by criminal groups to trick individuals into paying for crossings online.
“Heartless people smugglers are using social media to promote their despicable services and charge people thousands of pounds to make the illegal journey into the UK in unsafe boats. They must not succeed,” said UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman.
“This strengthened collaboration between the National Crime Agency, government and social media companies will ensure content promoting dangerous and illegal Channel crossings doesn’t see the light of day,” she said.
To help law enforcement better detect this information on social media sites, the government will also establish a new hub, which will be run by the NCA and the Home Office.
With 11 million pounds in state funding, the “Online Capability Centre”‘s work will be focused on compromising and disrupting the business models of organised crime organisations that are in charge of facilitating illegal crossings and using the internet to do so. This will be done by stepping up efforts to stop these organisations’ online activity.
As he vowed to crack down on migrants who arrived on the country’s borders illegally, Sunak declared “stop the boats” one of his government’s key priority. He also promised to facilitate their prompt expulsion through allegedly returns agreements with European nations like Albania.
