Exclusive:People smugglers 'have faced far too little challenge or enforcement', Home Secretary says

“They have faced far too little challenge or enforcement,” she wrote, adding: “That has to change.

“The gangs operate across borders, so law enforcement needs to co-operate across borders to bring them down.”

Ms Cooper and the Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, have been convening a two-day summit to increase worldwide collaboration to tackle people smuggling gangs.

Some 40 countries, including the US, China and France, have come together to discuss new partnerships to crack down on organised immigration crime.

Ms Cooper explained: “From following the illicit money the gangs make from smuggling and trafficking people across borders to disrupting their supply chain of small boats and engines and stopping them advertising their services on social media, we need collaboration across the globe to smash these criminal networks.”

Countries including Albania, Vietnam and Iraq – from where migrants have travelled to the UK – were at the London talks, which are the first of their kind.

Officials from social media companies Meta, X and TikTok were also invited to join discussions on how to crack down on the online promotion of irregular migration.

Opening the summit at Lancaster House in London yesterday, the Prime Minister said: “Illegal migration is a massive driver of global insecurity. It undermines our ability to control who comes here, and that makes people angry.

“It makes me angry, frankly, because it’s unfair on ordinary working people who pay the price – from the cost of hotels, to our public services struggling under the strain.

“And it’s unfair on the illegal migrants themselves, because these are vulnerable people being ruthlessly exploited by vile gangs.”

Almost 30,000 people have crossed the English Channel in small boats since Sir Keir and Ms Cooper got into power in July 2024, including 6,642 so far in 2025.

But they highlighted figures showing that between July 5 and March 22 there were 24,103 returns – including 6,339 enforced returns of people with no legal right to be in the UK, 3,594 foreign national offenders and 6,781 asylum-related returns.

Sir Keir also pointed to international criminal investigations involving UK authorities which were “beginning to bear fruit”, stressing his commitment to tackling people smuggling in the same way as cross-border terrorism.

But he blamed the Conservatives for failing to prevent people-smuggling gangs targeting the UK.

“We inherited this total fragmentation between our policing, our Border Force and our intelligence agencies.

“A fragmentation that made it crystal clear, when I looked at it, that there were gaps in our defence, an open invitation at our borders for the people smugglers to crack on.”

Ms Cooper said she would crack down on the number of people arriving in the UK on student or work visas and then claiming asylum.

The Government is also going to expand right-to-work checks to cover the gig economy, such as delivery drivers.

Businesses that do not carry out the checks could be fined up to £60,000, or face closures, director disqualifications, and up to five years in prison.