Six people were arrested on Tuesday (June 3), in a series of nationwide dawn raids and charged with suspicion of conspiring to help asylum seekers enter the UK and conspiracy to breach UK immigration law. 

The Home Office (Interior Ministry) said that the group, comprising five men and one woman, is suspected to be part of a people-smuggling gang that facilitated the irregular arrival of more than 200 Botswana nationals over two years. 

Once in the country, the suspects allegedly supplied the migrants with fake documents and fake identities to file a fraudulent asylum claim. The suspects also reportedly assisted and facilitated the employment of the migrants in care homes, despite not having any training or medical expertise.

The arrests were carried out across the country in Cheltenham, Manchester, Nottingham, Sheffield, and Bradford. The suspected ring leader, a 37-year-old Botswana national, was among those arrested.  

A 'Plan for Change'  

The crackdown is part of the 'Plan for Change,' an ambitious long–term plan for Britain’s national development premised on a stable economy, secure borders, and national security. 

"The government remains resolute in our approach to tacklling illegal migration and the criminal enterprizes that enable it, and through our Plan for Change will continue to restore order to the asylum system that collapsed in recent years," Security Minister Dan Jarvis said in a statement.

According to the Home Office, almost 30,000 people whose stay in the UK is unauthorized were returned, representing a 12 percent increase compared to the same period 12 months ago. 

Two arrested for fatal Channel Crossing

The National Crime Agency (NCA) also reported on Tuesday (June 3), that two men have been jailed for aiding a perilous boat crossing to the UK from France, during which two people died.

The suspects were identified as Afghan nationals Shah S., 38, and Safiollah M., 25. 

The boat, which was said to be carrying 70 people, arrived in UK waters on May 21. According to the NCA, shortly after its departure from a beach near Calais earlier in the day, a woman and child had been pulled off the overcrowded boat by a French coastal patrol vessel, but were declared dead soon afterwards. 

The British authorities are working with their counterparts in France and are now investigating the circumstances of the fatal crossing. 

The news comes after nearly 1,200 migrants reached British shores after crossing the English Channel on Saturday, a record for a single day this year. About 1,194 migrants arrived in the UK on Saturday (May 31) in 18 small boats from France across the English Channel. The arrivals prompted the British government to reiterate calls on French authorities to ramp up efforts to stop migrants in shallow waters.

Data from the Home Office indicate that 36,816 people arrived in the UK on small boats in 2024, 25 percent more than in 2023 (29,437). The highest number of arrivals was in 2022, with 45,774.

Read AlsoChannel: Britain and France sign another 'road map' amid increase in migrant arrivals to UK

A digital ID system

Meanwhile, in a wider bid to crack down on all forms of irregular migration, UK Home Secretary and Labor Minister Yvette Cooper, told Parliament on Tuesday (June 3), that the Labour Party is exploring a "digital ID" scheme to monitor people who are overstaying their visas and no longer have the right to stay in the UK.

The digital ID system would also reportedly help track undocumented migrants and legally tax "off-the-books" employment.

Jobs that are paid off-the-books refer to work that is typically paid in cash and often referred to as "under the table." The income is not reported to the government and thus, not taxed. Industries that often fall under the off-books jobs include construction, hospitality, agriculture, and domestic work. 

While it is difficult to determine the absolute number of undocumented migrants in the UK, it is estimated that as of 2017, there were about 800,000 – 1.2 million people living in the UK without a valid residence permit, according to data compiled by the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford.

The Migration Observatory says that about half of the UK's undocumented population reportedly comes from the Asia Pacific Region, while about 20 percent originates from sub-Saharan Africa.

This number puts the UK as having the largest number of unauthorized residents in Europe. About 25 percent of the total estimated irregular population of the 32 European Union and European Free Trade Association countries (EFTA) lives in the UK. 

In April, some 40 members of the Labour Party signed an open letter stating that digital documents could help crack down on off-the-book employment which is thought to be a big draw for migrants to irregularly enter the country or overstay their visa.

Last month, in a statement on the government’s white paper on Restoring Control over the Immigration System, Cooper said that net migration had reached a record high of more than 900,000 under the last government. That figure was reached in 2023, and had dropped slightly by 2024, a few months before Labour took office. The figures for this year have not yet been released but the reports of "record numbers" of migrant arrivals from across the Channel, combined with the recent electoral losses to the anti-migrant reform party in local elections, appear to have pushed the British government towards an ever stricter migration policy.

Cooper added that stronger controls and the use of technology, such as in the form of e-visas and digital IDs, better monitor when people are overstaying their visas, or to support the increase in illegal working raids.

Read AlsoUK: Parliamentarians push for digital ID to track and manage undocumented migrants