STORY
The Home Office today announced the creation of the Organised Immigration Crime Domestic Taskforce, aimed at overhauling the police response to UK-based people-smuggling networks facilitating Channel crossings.
The unit will be led by Deputy Chief Constable Wendy Gunney, National Lead for Serious Organised Crime at the National Police Chiefs’ Council, supported by a full-time assistant chief constable. Together, they will report regularly to Border Security Commander Martin Hewitt and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper to ensure swift progress against organised immigration crime.
This initiative responds directly to ten key recommendations from a January–July 2024 inspection by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services, which concluded that while police forces had made headway, a more unified approach was essential to disrupt smuggling gangs operating on UK soil.
Under the new framework, every regional police force will work in concert with the National Crime Agency, Immigration Enforcement and Border Force. Enhanced information-sharing protocols and coordinated tasking are designed to harness all available tools—from intelligence gathering to targeted enforcement—to root out and dismantle organised immigration criminals.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said:
“This specialist taskforce marks a significant step in our Plan for Change to secure Britain’s borders. By uniting expertise under Deputy Chief Constable Gunney’s leadership, we’re ensuring organised immigration crime sits at the very top of policing priorities and giving our officers the tools they need to protect lives and uphold the law.”
Deputy Chief Constable Gunney added that the taskforce will build on existing NPCC programmes tackling modern slavery and organised immigration crime, accelerating intelligence flows and maximising multi-agency disruption. Border Security Commander Martin Hewitt praised Wendy Gunney’s “wealth of experience” as vital to the government’s “whole-system approach” to border security.