More than 8,000 social media accounts promoting people smugglers shut down last year
Social media accounts featuring ad-style video testimonials from people smuggled into the UK were among more than 8,000 shut down for promoting the crime last year.
Others taken down by the National Crime Agency (NCA) in 2024 included one offering prizes to migrants who referred a friend to the illegal service.
The NCA oversaw a 40% increase in the number of accounts removed from sites such as Facebook, X, Youtube and TikTok last year compared to 2023.
It brought the total taken down since the agency launched its plan with the four social media giants in December 2021 to more than 16,500.
The operation also targeted accounts that falsely claimed the trip from France to the UK would take place using a speedboat, and another selling fake ID documents.
Sophie Austin, operations manager at the NCA’s Online Communication Centre, said social media is the ‘key way’ people smugglers promote their twisted business to would-be migrants.
She said: ‘It is a major part of their business model.
‘Once migrants are engaged, they then move conversations onto encrypted messaging apps where they are hidden from law enforcement. Taking down these accounts disrupts the activities of those criminal networks.
‘We are devoting more resources to doing that, as it is one of a number of ways we can actively target them and make their life more difficult.’
In November, 34-year-old Amanj Hasan Zada was jailed for 17 years after being convicted of organising small-boat crossings from his home in Lancashire.
Investigators from the NCA discovered videos he had posted on social media from people he had successfully smuggled, thanking him for his help.
One such video showed a group of men aboard a boat to Italy lavishing praise on Zada.
Caerphilly-based Dilshad Shamo and Ali Khdir also included videos from people they had smuggled in their social media posts.
In one clip, a family travelling by plane is filmed saying: ‘We are very happy… this is the visa, may god bless him, we are really happy.’
Shamo and Khdir pleaded guilty to offences of facilitation of migrants through Europe in November and are awaiting sentencing.
The NCA said the 40% increase from 2023, when 5,600 accounts were removed, was down to close work with social media companies and ‘the development of detection capabilities’.
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