Vile social media advertisements supply ‘jet boat’ Channel crossings as Labour pledges jail phrases

On Jan 20, 2026

Home Office minister Mike Tapp said smugglers will face years behind bars in a clampdown on using social media to promote small boat crossings after 10,000 ads were removed in a year

00:01, 20 Jan 2026

A minister has hit out at smugglers using social media to brazenly promote small boat crossings by offering “jet boats” to the UK.

Mike Tapp said the Government is taking the fight to trafficking gangs, who will soon face up to five years behind bars for advertising on sites like TikTok. Last year more than 10,000 posts and accounts were removed by the National Crime Agency (NCA).

The Home Office believes 80% of people who arrive by small boats used social media to facilitate their journey, with pressure mounting on tech giants to act. Platforms are flooded with ads placed by organised criminals, investigators say.

Mr Tapp, Minister for Migration and Citizenship, told The Mirror: “We’re taking the fight to the brazen people smugglers who think they can advertise their services on social media platforms undetected – they’re wildly mistaken.

“National Crime Agency officers have delivered a record crackdown on more than 10,000 social media accounts linked to smuggling, a direct blow to criminal networks. In the coming weeks our new law to target smugglers promoting dangerous Channel crossings on social media will come into force.

“We’re boosting operational powers to stay one step ahead of the smugglers peddling their criminality online.” The new UK-wide offence will criminalise creating material which promotes breaches of immigration law.

This includes encouraging small boat crossings, as well as advertising fake document services or promising illegal working opportunities. The NCA has announced today that 10,700 such adverts were removed in 2025.

Some of these were advertising sham marriage services, false identity documents, or help with fraudulent asylum claims. Others promoted small boat crossings, promising “jet boats” would transport people to the UK – as well as a “taxi service” on the back of lorries.

Article continues below

These were posted in a number of languages. Mike Hulett, head of the NCA’s Online Communication Centre, said: “Targeting the social media offering of these criminal networks is just one way we are looking to disrupt their business models, and we are expanding how we do that all the time.

“It also provides us with crucial intelligence leads to identify criminals, and a number of our current investigations have started off this way. We continue to work closely with the social media companies to remove this material and we have positive dialogue with them.

“We are clear though that more needs to be done to stop platforms being used to advertise criminal services.”