BIRTISH GOVT ANNOUNCES TECH PARTNERSHIP TO CURB MIGRANT ARRIVALS

Sun 06 August 2023:

The British government on Saturday announced a new partnership with social media companies to tackle people smuggling content online, including criminals sharing information about illegal Channel crossings.

Figures show over 90 percent of online content linked to people smuggling is taken down when social media companies are notified, the government said in a statement.

“The partnership between tech firms and the government will drive forward efforts to clamp down on the tactics being used by criminal gangs who use the internet to lure people into paying for crossings,” it added.

The content can include discount offers for groups of people, free spaces for children, offers of false documents and false claims of safe passage, which targets vulnerable people for profit and puts people’s lives at risk through dangerous and illegal journeys, it said.

The announced partnership between Britain’s National Crime Agency and companies including Meta, TikTok and X (former Twitter) will target content linked to people smuggling, such as offers of false documents, group discounts, free spaces for children and false claims of safe passage, Downing Street said.

“To stop the boats, we have to tackle the business model of vile people smugglers at source,” UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said.

“That means clamping down on their attempts to lure people into making these illegal crossings and profit from putting lives at risk.

“This 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,” he added.

But the main opposition Labour party’s home affairs spokeswoman, Yvette Cooper, said the action was “too little, too late”, accusing the government of having “no idea how to fix the mess they created”.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman said: Heartless people smugglers are using social media to promote their despicable services and charge people thousands of pounds to make the illegal journey into the UK in unsafe boats. They must not succeed.

This strengthened collaboration between the National Crime Agency, government and social media companies will ensure content promoting dangerous and illegal Channel crossings doesn’t see the light of day.

Immigration — both legal and illegal — has long been a key political issue in Britain and was one of the main battlegrounds of the Brexit referendum in 2016, which saw the country leave the European Union.

More than 45,000 migrants arrived on the shores of southeast England on small boats in 2022 — a 60-percent annual increase — on a perilous route that has been used by more people every year since 2018.

Sunak’s government last month passed a controversial law, criticised by the United Nations, barring asylum claims by anyone arriving via the Channel and other “illegal” routes.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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