UK clamps down on Horn of Africa illegal crossings
Publish date: 02 February 2026
Issue Number: 1162
Diary: IBA Legalbrief Africa
Category: Immigration
The UK Government, which is coming under increasing pressure from its opposition, is pushing for tougher measures to curb illegal migration from the Horn Africa, including clamping down on social media accounts that advertise smuggling routes, notes Legalbrief. On a visit to Ethiopia this week, the Foreign Secretary, Yvette Cooper, will unveil plans for closer cooperation on illegal migration after UK government assessments indicated that an increasing proportion of total arrivals across the English Channel and across the Mediterranean are coming from the Horn of Africa, reports The Independent. The new co-operation will include job creation partnerships backed by UK investment to tackle the economic drivers of illegal migration, the Foreign Office said, as well as new partnerships with Ethiopian authorities to tackle criminal smuggler gangs and speed up returns. The Foreign Secretary will sign a Joint Development Agreement this week to take forward two energy transmission projects totalling over $400m developed by Gridworks - a British International Investment company that delivers UK investment across Africa – as well as providing more funding and support for Ethiopian law-enforcement agencies. The latest measures come just days after the Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood admitted that despite Labour being elected on a pledge to 'smash the gangs' and curb small boat crossings, nearly 65 000 people have made the journey to Britain since Labour was elected in July 2024. With critics increasingly saying the government had failed to get a grip on the issue, Ministers were last year forced to unveil sweeping reforms to the asylum system.
Today (Monday), Ministers will activate part of the Border Security, Asylum & Immigration Act, passed last year, to clamp down on adverts telling migrants how they can circumvent immigration checks. Social media users who tout illegal routes into the UK face up to five years in prison as the Home Office continues its attempt to crack down on small boat crossings. The National Crime Agency (NCA) Online Communications Centre will trawl through thousands of social media accounts as part of the campaign. The latest measures form part of a broader effort to curb illegal immigration and tackle the threat posed by Reform UK amid surging approval ratings for Nigel Farage’s party, with Border Security Minister Alex Norris saying his message to people smugglers is: 'We are coming after you.' Immigration authorities already have the power to target social media users, but only if they can prove online content directly led to a migration offence, according to The Independent. The NCA’s work saw more than 10 000 social media accounts, pages and posts linked to people smuggling shut down last year, which was a record, according to the government. But the new offence will target social media users posting adverts before migrants arrive on UK soil. It is thought so-called 'service agents', middlemen who link migrants up with facilitators for small boats crossings and other routes, could be targeted with the new powers. Speaking to the Press Association, Norris said: 'To the people smugglers peddling this content, whether you are selling your vile trade online through ‘golden package deals’, supplying boat equipment or researching routes, we are coming after you. I will not stop until we’ve restored order and control to our borders.'
In 2025, around 41 500 people were detected crossing the English Channel in small boats, reports Migration Observatory. That was 13% more than the year before, and the second-highest annual figure. In 2022, about 46 000 people crossed the Channel in this way. A total of 194 000 people arrived by small boat between 2018 and 2025. Arrivals increased between the autumn of 2024 and the summer of 2025 before falling slightly in the last months of the year. Approximately 1 000 additional people crossed the Channel in January 2026, similar to previous years. The majority of those arriving in small boats are men over the age of 18 – around 76% of 2024 arrivals for whom this information was recorded. Another 14% of arrivals that year were children under 18. These proportions have been stable over time. One reason for the higher share of men is the danger associated with unauthorised migration. In many cases, female and minor children join later through family reunification routes. Most people who cross the Channel in small boats claim asylum once they are in the UK. In 2024, 99% of all those crossing either applied for asylum or were named as a dependant on an application. Among all arrivals between 2018 and 2024, the share was 95%. In recent years, small boat arrivals made up 30-40% of all people applying for asylum in the UK. The number of asylum applications increased sharply since 2020, reaching a record 108 000 in 2024. Only part of this growth is explained by people crossing the Channel by small boat. Some people also enter the UK through other unauthorised means, such as in lorries or containers. The sharp rise in small boat crossings means that overall unauthorised arrivals have increased, and that small boats now account for more than 80% of detected arrivals.
The latest move by the UK comes as Rwanda has taken legal action against that country's refusal to disburse payments under a now-scrapped, controversial agreement for Kigali to receive deported asylum seekers, reports Al Jazeera. This is according to a Rwandan official and UK media reports. Rwanda launched arbitral proceedings against the UK through the Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration on Tuesday. It is seeking £50m in compensation after the UK failed to formally terminate the controversial agreement about two years ago, The Telegraph reported. Michael Butera, chief technical adviser to the Minister of Justice, told AFP that Kigali had sought diplomatic engagement before resorting to legal action. The programme to remove to East Africa some people who had arrived in the UK via small boats was agreed upon in a treaty between London and Kigali. It was intended as a deterrent for those wanting to come to the UK in the same manner. However, just four volunteers ultimately arrived in Rwanda. Prime Minister Keir Starmer scrapped the deal – brokered by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Government in 2022 – when he took office in July 2024. London had already paid Kigali £240m before the agreement was abandoned, with a further £50m due in April. Starmer’s official spokesman yesterday said: ‘We will robustly defend our position to protect British taxpayers.’ The agreement faced a string of legal challenges, culminating in a November 2023 ruling by the UK Supreme Court that it was illegal under international law.
Meanwhile, a federal judge has halted the Trump administration’s plan to strip deportation protections from thousands of Ethiopians living in the US, reports Al Jazeera. Judge Brian Murphy in Boston issued the order on Friday, delaying a 13 February deadline that would have forced more than 5 000 Ethiopians to leave the country or face arrest. The ruling represents the latest legal setback to the administration’s broader push to end temporary protections for more than 1m people across multiple countries. Murphy’s decision came during a virtual hearing, where he said the delay would provide time for the Department of Homeland Security to produce records explaining its decision-making process before he considers blocking the move for longer. The case was brought by three Ethiopian nationals and the advocacy group African Communities Together, who filed suit after the DHS announced in December it was terminating the Temporary Protected Status first granted to Ethiopia in 2022. The lawsuit argues the administration unlawfully ended the protections with just 60 days’ notice despite ongoing armed conflict in the African nation. Plaintiffs also claim Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem acted based on an ‘unconstitutional animus against non-white immigrants’. The move came even as the State Department continues urging Americans to reconsider travel to Ethiopia due to ‘sporadic violent conflict, civil unrest, crime, communications disruptions, terrorism and kidnapping’.
Back in the UK, a Sudanese asylum seeker has been jailed for at least 29 years for the ‘sadistic’ murder of a woman who was working at the hotel where he lived, reports The Guardian. Deng Chol Majek is believed to have entered the UK by small boat less than three months before stabbing Rhiannon Whyte (27) with a screwdriver 23 times at Bescot Stadium station in Walsall in October 2024. Majek followed Whyte to the station after she finished a shift at the Park Inn, where he had been living, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard. He stabbed her 19 times in the head, causing a fatal brain stem injury, the jury was told. Whyte, whose son was five at the time, died in hospital three days later. Her mother described Majek as an ‘evil nightmare’ in a statement made to court before he was sentenced on Friday. CCTV played at the trial showed Majek disappeared from view on a deserted platform for 90 seconds after 11pm so he could attack Whyte. Jurors unanimously convicted Majek of murder and possessing a screwdriver as an offensive weapon. Passing a life sentence, Mr Justice Soole told Majek he had brought ‘devastation’ to Whyte’s family. He described the attack as one of ‘vicious brutality’ and the ‘intent was to kill’. Outside the court, groups of people waved England flags and far-right activist Tommy Robinson joined the crowds. Majek is said to have lied to the court about his age, claiming to be 19 despite age assessment putting him between 25 and 28. The trial heard Majek had been reported to security at the hotel after ‘spookily’ staring at three female staff members for prolonged periods.
And a Dutch court has sentenced an Eritrean man to 20 years in prison for running a human trafficking network in which African migrants were tortured, and their families extorted, reports africanews. The court said the man, identified as Amanuel Walid, treated migrants ‘without any humanity’ while transporting them from Eritrea to Europe via Libya. ‘Your only objective was to make as much money as possible from people who were seeking a better future,’ the presiding judge told Walid. Members of the gang abused thousands of migrants before detaining them in overcrowded and unsanitary camps in Libya, extorting large sums of money from their families. Prosecutors had sought the maximum sentence of 20 years, accusing Walid of leading a criminal organisation involved in human trafficking, extortion, hostage-taking and sexual offences. Walid has been in custody in the Netherlands since October 2022. He made no substantive statements in court other than denying the charges, saying it was a case of mistaken identity. The judge rejected that claim. His lawyers also argued that he had already been tried in Ethiopia for largely similar charges and therefore could not be tried again. The judge said the sentence in the Ethiopian case had not yet been enforced, but Walid could appeal if that happened. The Dutch investigation into the operation lasted several years and was carried out in co-operation with international bodies, including the International Criminal Court and Interpol.
