Some accounts promoted boat crossing to the UK from France
Some advertised crossings, selling them as ‘taxi services’(Image: NCA)
Kent MP Mike Tapp has warned people smugglers they are “coming after you” as the National Crime Agency removed a record 10,700 social media accounts linked to organised immigration crime in 2025. The NCA proactively scans social media, searching for material and flagging it to platforms as potentially criminal in nature where appropriate.
This activity triggered the removal of almost 10,700 accounts, pages and posts during the 12 months to the end of December 2025. This is up almost a third on the 8,000 removed as a result of NCA checks in 2024, and means more than 27,000 have been taken down in total since the NCA started working with social media companies towards the end of 2021.
In the last two years more than 90 per cent of all accounts referred to platforms by the NCA have been removed. Some of the accounts identified through monitoring advertised sham marriage services, fake identity documents, or assistance with fraudulent asylum claims.
Others advertise boat crossings to the UK from France, claiming that passengers will be transported in a “jet boat”, or crossings in the back of lorries, selling them as “taxi service”. Posts advertising Mediterranean crossings were also taken down. Posts have been identified using a range of different languages, including English, French, Turkish, Arabic, Albanian, Vietnamese, Farsi, Dari, Sorani Kurdish and Pashto.
Mike Tapp, Minister for Migration and Citizenship and MP for Dover and Deal, said: “My message to people smugglers hiding behind a screen: we are coming after you. Action is at record levels with more than 10,000 smuggling accounts, pages and posts taken down in the last year alone, thanks to the dedication of our National Crime Agency officers.
“We are closing down their reach, using intelligence to target criminal networks and backing this with a new law making it illegal to create or post adverts for smuggling services.”
NCA analysis of the adverts suggests that the majority are likely posted by low and mid-ranking criminal network members, primarily located in source and transit countries. Those posting content generally manage a large number of accounts to increase their reach and to provide contingency in case of takedowns, using social media as an initial gateway to ‘customers’ who are then drawn on to messaging apps.
Some are also involved in directly facilitating channel crossings in boats and HGVs, with footage of attempts being used to further advertise smugglers’ successes.Investigators have also noticed an increase in the use of emojis, text over video and coded language in an effort to avoid detection.
Head of the NCA’s Online Communication Centre Mike Hulett said: “Targeting the social media offering of these criminal networks is just one way we are looking to disrupt their business models, and we are expanding how we do that all the time. “It also provides us with crucial intelligence leads to identify criminals, and a number of our current investigations have started off this way. We continue to work closely with the social media companies to remove this material and we have positive dialogue with them.
“We are clear though that more needs to be done to stop platforms being used to advertise criminal services. Tackling organised immigration crime remains a top priority for the NCA, and working with partners we are determined to do all we can to target, disrupt and dismantle their activities, wherever they operate.”
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