UK immigration enforcement teams reported over 600 arrests in January, marking a staggering 73 percent increase compared to the same month last year. This surge is part of the Labour government’s initiative to combat undocumented migration and dismantle people smuggling operations, according to officials.
The raids at more than 800 venues, nail bars, restaurants, car washes, and corner shops led to 609 arrests, while 352 people were arrested in January 2024.
Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer had rapidly shelved the contentious plan of his Conservative predecessor, Rishi Sunak, when he came into office seeking to deter undocumented migration by deporting new arrivals to Rwanda.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the balance needed to be tilted further by increasing enforcement: “Too many people have been able to arrive and work illegally with no enforcement action ever taken,” she said. Cooper indicated that the government was committed to increasing enforcement to unprecedented levels as well as implementing tough legislation that would dismantle the criminal gangs challenging Britain’s borders.
Undocumented migration, especially in unsafe small boats crossing the English Channel from northern France, became a flashpoint in last July’s general election that brought Starmer’s Labour Party into power. The issue of regular migration, now at historically high levels—estimated to be 728,000 for the year ending June 2024—also dominated the electoral debate.
Starmer is under pressure to address both legal and undocumented migration, with support growing for Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party, which received around four million votes at the July 4 election-the best result by a far-right party on record. Provisional figures from the interior ministry show 36,816 people were detected crossing the Channel in 2024, up 25 percent from 29,437 the previous year.
Other measures that the government has taken to curb undocumented migration include establishing a new Border Security Command and better cooperation with European partners, including Europol. The UK has signed joint action plans with Germany and Iraq to take on smuggling gangs, in addition to previous agreements reached with France and Albania.
Returns of irregular migrants to their home countries have also increased to the highest level since 2017, according to the government. The new Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, which would give law enforcement powers described as “counter-terror style powers” to disrupt gangs behind Channel crossings of irregular migrants, is due to have its second reading in Parliament on Monday.
