Social media influencers such as rappers, comedians and lifestyle bloggers will be paid thousands of pounds to help promote new UK immigration laws on the video-sharing channel, The Times revealed on Wednesday (February 14).

TikTok is used by people smugglers to promote their business to migrants, and the government’s campaign, said to be costing £380,500, is aimed at countering their message among would-be migrants in Albania, Iraq, Egypt and Vietnam, with plans to introduce similar campaigns in Turkey and India, according to documents seen by the paper.

The Home Office is prevented from advertising directly on TikTok, which is Chinese-owned, because of a ban on government use introduced in 2023 due to security concerns.

Also read: UK drafts bill to criminalize posting of Channel crossing videos

Campaign to target young men

In Albania, The Times reports, a rapper known as Omg Dioh, who has over 100,000 TikTok followers, is among several influencers to be identified as suitable candidates to promote the British government’s message.

The consultancy firm contracted to find celebrities says it has proposed people who are "well-placed to disseminate key messages on TikTok about the reasons to remain in country, risks to crossings [and] the legislation that applies if you arrive in the UK."

The government believes its hardline policies, including the Rwanda legislation, will create a deterrent to stop people from crossing the Channel to the UK. It says communicating the changes through advertising will persuade people against "traveling to the UK for economic opportunities." 

"This campaign is not aimed at those migrants whose minds are already set on making the illegal journey to the UK: we know that the influence we can have over them is limited," the draft plan reportedly states.

"For this campaign’s audience, largely comprising young working-age males and their family, influencers' communications have a role in encouraging them to consider the risk of exploitation, apprehension, detention and ultimately return, as reasons illegal migration to the UK is not the right choice."

Sending a warning to potential migrants about the physical dangers of crossing the Channel was added to the list of the campaign's objectives – indirectly – by a spokesperson from the Home Office. "We make no apologies for using every means necessary to stop the boats and save lives," the spokesperson told Sky News.

Migration experts repeat: deterrents don’t work

The news of the TikTok campaign came as a report by Les Jours, a French subscription-based investigative journalism website, suggests that the UK government's focus on deterrence to stop migrants from crossing the Channel is misguided.

The report, published this week in English by openDemocracy, an independent news platform, found that despite more than £800 million (around €936 million) being spent on security and deterrence measures in the Channel since 2014, almost 400 people have died attempting the journey in the last 25 years.

Also read: Migrant dies following electrocution on top of Eurostar train

"Staggering sums are being spent on an ever more lucrative and entrenched regime of surveillance, restriction, and enforcement, but numbers of people seeking safety remain stable," said Zoe Gardner, an independent migration policy expert.

Gardner told openDemocracy that the British government is "continuing to do the same thing and expecting different results," which is making attempts to reach the UK "more dangerous."

The investigation by Les Jours and openDemocracy, which concluded at the start of 2023, found that most of those who have lost their lives crossing the Channel were from China, Iraq, Vietnam and Sudan. They included at least 43 children.

Responding to the report, migrant charity groups said the only way to stop deaths in the Channel is to provide safe routes to the UK. "We know too well that lack of safe routes and increased securitization of the border only push people to take more dangerous routes with devasating impacts on human life," Asli Tatliadim from the group Refugee Action told openDemoracy.

"The UK must commit to welcoming at least 30,000 people a year through safe routes," Tatliadim added. "It must also provide leave to enter passes to help people enter by land, sea or air … only then, fewer people will be forced to risk their lives crossing the Channel."