People Smuggling: Northern Ireland
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the scale of people-smuggling facilitation activity with operational links to Northern Ireland since July 2024; and how many disruptions and arrests have been made.
Answered by Mike Tapp
Through the Border Security Command, we continue to work with all key partners, both across the UK and internationally to disrupt and deter people-smuggling facilitation. Our collective law enforcement powers, sharing intelligence, data, and expertise, and conducting joined-up operational activity support our aim of putting people-smuggling gangs out of business.
The National Crime Agency's National Strategic Assessment assesses that the Common Travel Area (CTA), and particularly the routes between Ireland, Northern Ireland, and Great Britain, continue to be exploited by criminals for the purposes of immigration crime.
Tackling the threat from organised immigration crime, including illegal entry to the UK via the Common Travel Area (CTA), is complex and requires the coordination of approach and resource across the Home Office and with Policing Partners. Within Immigration Enforcement, our Officers work closely with law enforcement partners both in Northern Ireland, Great Britain, and the Republic of Ireland to maximise the use of resources and ensure the upstream disruption of out-of-country organised crime groups who seek to facilitate immigration crime through the CTA.
Our published national data on enforcement activity is available at the following link and includes data on detected irregular arrivals to the UK: Immigration system statistics, year ending September 2025 - GOV.UK.
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