Ministers are to outlaw social media adverts promoting journeys on small boats across the Channel to asylum seekers.
The government will create a UK-wide criminal offence that could lead to perpetrators being sentenced for up to five years in prison and a hefty fine.
Though facilitating illegal immigration is already a crime, the change will make it a specific offence to create material for online publication that promotes or offers services that would lead to a breach of UK immigration law.
This includes advertising small boat crossings, selling fake passports, visas and other travel documents, and promoting opportunities for illegal work in the UK.
Ministers will make the change via an amendment to the border security bill, which is making its way through its final stages in the House of Lords.
Eighty per cent of migrants who arrived in the UK on small boats told government officials that they had used social media during their journey, including to locate or communicate with people smugglers, according to Home Office data.
The department said it wanted to crack down on smugglers selling a false narrative about life in the UK to desperate asylum seekers by criminalising those promising illegal work online.
Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, said: “Selling the false promise of a safe journey to the UK and a life in this country – whether on or offline – simply to make money, is nothing short of immoral.
“These criminals have no issue with leading migrants to life-threatening situations using brazen tactics on social media. We are determined to do everything we can to stop them – wherever they operate.”
The change will also make it a crime to post online content that encourages someone to break UK immigration law in exchange for money.
Cooper will also introduce a new fast-track scheme in the autumn in an attempt to address the asylum backlog.
The aim is for decisions to be made in weeks rather than years and comes after protests in Epping, London, Manchester and Newcastle over people staying in hotels while awaiting asylum decisions
She will also tighten the rules around the interpretation of “exceptional circumstances” in immigration cases and the use of article 8 of the European convention on human rights, which protects the right to family and private life.
Rob Jones, the director general for operations at the National Crime Agency (NCA), said: “We know many of the people-smuggling networks risking lives transporting people to the UK promote their services to migrants using social media.
“The majority of migrants arriving in the UK will have engaged with smugglers in this way.”
The NCA has taken action against organised crime groups using social media to promote crossings, including a south Wales-based gang convicted in November 2024 after smuggling thousands of people across Europe.
The gang used social media videos posted by people who had made successful crossings to promote the service.
Another network operated by the Preston-based smuggler Amanj Hasan Zada, who was later jailed for 17 years, also posted videos of people thanking Zada for helping them.
There have been cases of Albanian people smugglers who have used social media to promote £12,000 “package deals” to get to the UK including accommodation and employment, which will also fall under the scope of the new law.