Sir Keir Starmer issues warning over ‘death trap’ boats as it’s revealed 24,000 illegal immigrants sent home

31 March 2025, 10:00 | Updated: 31 March 2025, 11:25

Starmer 'angry' about scale of illegal immigration around the world

Sir Keir Starmer has issued a warning over 'death trap' boats used by people smugglers as he announced a massive surge in immigration enforcement.

The UK is hosting over 40 countries and organisations, including the United States, Vietnam, Iraq, and France, to agree new action to smash people-smuggling gangs.

The meeting comes as it was revealed that 24,000 illegal immigrants have been sent home since July - the highest rate of returns in eight years.

Speaking at the Organised Immigration Crime (OIC) Summit, Sir Keir promised "pragmatic solutions which work" to tackle small boats.

All countries need to implement "tough measures at home" to deal with illegal immigration, he said.

He warned that the small boats being used to cross the Channel were "death traps" and "not worthy of the name boat".

£33 million will be spent to disrupt people smuggling networks, increase prosecutions and secure the UK's borders.

Read more: Britain to use anti-terror tactics to stop people smugglers, as government announce trafficking crack down

The PM said the UK had for too long been a "soft touch" and the door had been left "wide open for illegal working, especially in short term or zero hours roles".

"Whilst most companies do the responsible thing and carry out right to work checks, too many dodgy firms have been exploiting a loophole to skip this process, hiring illegal workers, undercutting honest businesses, driving down the wages of ordinary working people," he said.

"All of this of course fuelling that poisonous narrative of the gangs who promise the dream of a better life to vulnerable people yet deliver a nightmare of squalid conditions and appalling exploitation.

"Today we are changing that because this Government is introducing a tough new law to force all companies to carry out these checks on right to work."

The OIC summit is the first time the full range of factors driving illegal migration – from the supply chain in small boats to anti-trafficking measures, illicit finance, and social media advertising – have been discussed at a global meeting of this scale.

Representatives from Meta, X and TikTok are also in attendance to discuss how to jointly tackle the online promotion of irregular migration.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper joined the PM in criticising the "vast and ruthless" people smuggling industry.

Challenges with immigration are not new but the increasing number of people crossing borders is, she said.

"Two factors have accelerated and changed some of the challenges our countries face," she told the summit.

"First is technology. The physical distances between nations and continents may not have changed but technology has made the world feel a lot smaller."

She added: "And the second factor is the emergence of a vast and ruthless criminal industry that stretches across borders and across continents, worth billions of pounds."

"It is governments and not gangs who should be deciding who enters our country," Ms Cooper went on to say.

"Those gangs are operating and profiting across borders, so we and our law enforcement need to cooperate across borders now to take them down."

She said international cooperation is the key to stopping illegal immigration.

"We know that strengthening our border security means working with all the countries on the other sides of our borders, not just standing on our shoreline shouting at the sea," Ms Cooper said.

"We know too that no country can do this alone and that is why the partnerships and everyone gathering here is so important so today we will talk about what to do to tackle this vile trade in human beings."

A record 6,642 migrants crossed the Channel in 199 boats, so far in 2025.

The Home Secretary announced on Sunday that £30 million of funding will go directly to high-impact operations from the Border Security Command to tackle supply chains, illicit finances and trafficking routes across Europe, the Western Balkans, Asia, and Africa.

An additional £3 million will enable the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to increase its capacity to prosecute organised international smugglers and expand its international footprint to support the Border Security Command to pursue, disrupt and arrest those responsible for dangerous people smuggling operations.

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The summit is focusing on small boat journeys across the English Channel, which are framed as part of a wider problem of organised immigration crime driving movements to make profit.

More than 8,000 adverts on social media were taken down last year where smugglers were promoting crossings, before moving to encrypted channels.

Some 600 engines were seized and hundreds of people arrested for facilitating journeys in efforts to crack down on smuggling gangs.

Law enforcement agencies trying to break smugglers' business models are believed to have forced up the cost for engines and boats to £14,000 from the low thousands in a bid to make it economically unsustainable to carry on.

Criminal finances will be a focus of discussions, which will look at how to follow the money of smugglers globally and to share approaches from different countries.