Social media firms partner with law enforcement to tackle small boat crossings
Rishi Sunak hopes the crackdown will remove promotional posts from people smugglers.
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Social media firms will team up with the National Crime Agency to crack down on people smugglersā posts encouraging asylum seekers to cross the Channel, ministers have said.
Rishi Sunak said the new partnership between law enforcement and tech giants including Facebook, TikTok and Twitter will tackle attempts to ālureā migrants into paying to make the perilous journey.
Group discounts, free spaces for children and offers of false documents are among the posts the Prime Minister wants removed to help achieve his promise to āstop the boatsā.
Labour said the action was ātoo little, too lateā and the Liberal Democrats said it amounted to ātinkering around the edgesā.
The voluntary partnership will seek to redirect people away from such content in the same way as is used to tackle content promoting extremism or eating disorders.
An āonline capability centreā backed by Ā£11 million in funding will also be established so officers at the NCA can work with the Home Office to report the promotional posts.
Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, as well as TikTok and X, formally known as Twitter, have all signed up to the plans, Downing Street said.
Mr Sunak said: āTo stop the boats, we have to tackle the business model of vile people smugglers at source.
āThat means clamping down on their attempts to lure people into making these illegal crossings and profit from putting lives at risk.
āThis 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.ā
Home Secretary Suella Braverman said the āstrengthened collaborationā will ensure content promoting unauthorised Channel crossings ādoesnāt see the light of dayā.
Kicking off a āsmall boats weekā of linked announcements, No 10 said that the ālegacyā backlog of asylum applications made before the end of June 2022 has been reduced by a third since December.
But Labour claimed it will take until 2036 to clear the existing backlog for removals of failed asylum seekers, with nearly 40,000 awaiting removal in the latest figures.
Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said it was ājust deludedā for the Conservatives to āboast about progress on tackling the Tories asylum chaosā.
āThis is too little, too late,ā the Labour MP said of the technology partnership plans, accusing the Government of having āno idea how to fix the mess they createdā.
Fridayās Channel crossings of 262 people including children were the first since July 26 amid poor weather conditions at sea.
They take the provisional total detected by the Home Office of making the crossing to nearly 15,000 crossings so far this year.
But there were also concerns over the number of people making unauthorised entries through other means.
Figures obtained by The Times and not disputed by the Home Office suggested 21,000 migrants entered the UK undetected before going on to apply for asylum.
Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Alistair Carmichael said the tech announcement was ātinkering around the edges when much larger reforms are neededā.
āThe public has lost all faith in this Government when it comes to the asylum system, and this latest announcement will do little to change that,ā the MP said.
Meanwhile, Labour accused the Government of ācooking the booksā as more than 6,000 asylum seekers were wiped off the decisions backlog for reasons including failing to fill in questionnaires under the new fast track scheme.
Shadow immigration minister Stephen Kinnock accused ministers of āsimply marking cases as āwithdrawnā based on a missed appointmentā as they battle to bring down the backlog from a record high.
āThe Conservative government is cooking the books and not being honest with people,ā he said.
āThey need to come clean on how many of these āwithdrawnā asylum seekers are simply getting the green light to drift off into Britainās underground economy, never to be heard of again, and how many are being removed from the UK.ā
The Home Office insisted that it seeks to remove individuals with withdrawn claims if they have no right to remain in Britain.
āOur efforts to streamline processing mean statistics now show an increase in the number of withdrawn claims, which occur for a number of reasons including where someone has already left the UK before their claim was considered or they choose to or pursue another application for permission to stay,ā a spokesman said.