Tag: Press Release

The press release issued by the Home Office on 25 April 2025.

43 failed asylum seekers and foreign offenders were returned on a charter flight to Nigeria and Ghana, as the government steps up international collaboration to secure our borders.

The flight underscores the government’s progress restoring order to the immigration system through the Plan for Change, ensuring rules are respected and those who break them are swiftly returned.

Those removed had no right to be in the UK and included 15 failed asylum seekers and 11 foreign national offenders who had served their sentences. 7 people returned voluntarily.

Since the election, two charter flights have taken off to the countries, carrying a total of 87 people and demonstrating the strength of cooperation between the UK, Nigeria and Ghana on this critical issue.

Under this government, over 24,000 people have been returned, an 11% increase on the same period 12 months prior, while four of the largest returns flights ever have taken off returning migrants to countries across Europe, Asia, Africa and South America.

Deportations of foreign national offenders are also up 16% since the election, with 3,594 criminals removed.

Immigration Enforcement ensure that returns are carried out in a dignified and respectful manner.

Minister for Border Security and Asylum Angela Eagle said:

This flight demonstrates how international partnerships deliver on working people’s priorities for swift returns and secure borders.

Through the Plan for Change we’re going further in restoring order to a broken system, accelerating returns of those with no right to be here and closing expensive asylum hotels.

I thank the governments of Ghana and Nigeria for facilitating this operation, which reflects our joint commitment to disrupt organised immigration crime and protect our borders.

Baroness Chapman of Darlington, FCDO Minister responsible for Irregular Migration said:

Working with other countries and partners around the world is critical to tackling irregular migration – by working internationally, we will meet this global challenge together.

I welcome our strong cooperation with Ghana and Nigeria to return those with no right to be in the UK, secure our borders, and deliver on the Plan for Change.

This operation follows the Organised Immigration Crime Summit, which saw the UK bring together over 40 countries, including Nigeria and Ghana, to drive forward the global fight against smuggling gangs and deliver on the government’s mission to secure our borders.

The press release issued by the Home Office on 25 April 2025.

UK-Thai cooperation results in 90% reduction in cannabis arriving in the post.

Cannabis arrivals by post from Thailand plummeted by 90% in the first three months of this year, thanks to a new partnership between UK Border Force and Thai customs.

Since Thailand decriminalised cannabis in 2022, there has been a dramatic increase in the amount of cannabis being sent to the UK by post.

In the last quarter of 2024, Border Force, with the support of Royal Mail, detected over 15 tonnes of the drug, which threatened to overwhelm resources.

However, after intense diplomatic engagement, UK Border Force and Thai customs established a new agreement, requiring parcels from Thailand to be checked before they are shipped.

Border Force have detected 1.5 tonnes of cannabis coming through the post in the first quarter of 2025 – a 90% reduction, which is a result of the extra checks taking place in Thailand.

The action is key to this government’s work to boost international cooperation and tighten border security as we deliver safer streets for working people through our Plan for Change.

Minister for Citizenship and Migration, Seema Malhotra said:

Our partnership with Thai customs has slashed cannabis smuggling in the post by 90% in just three months. This collaboration is delivering real results and it’s a prime example of how international cooperation is crucial to our Plan for Change, safer streets mission.

By stopping these drugs at source, we’re disrupting organised crime, protecting communities, and freeing Border Force to focus on other priorities. Together with our partners in Thailand, this government will continue to take tough action against those attempting to smuggle illegal drugs across our borders.

The Home Office and Border Force have also worked closely with Thailand to prevent drugs being smuggled by air passengers. In February, Border Force and the National Crime Agency took part in Operation Chaophraya, a Home Office-led operation at Bangkok Airport.

This resulted in over 2 tonnes of cannabis being surrendered from transiting passengers, with an estimated value of £6 million.

Since Operation Chaophraya began under this government in July 2024, over 50 British nationals have been arrested in Thailand for attempted cannabis smuggling, underlining the importance of upstream deterrence work.

To mark the new partnership, the UK hosted Director General of Thai Customs, Mr Theeraj Athanavanich, and his delegation at Heathrow Airport and a Border Force postal depot earlier this week.

Mr Athanavanich met with the Minister for Migration and Citizenship, Seema Malhotra, and Director General for Border Force, Phil Douglas, where they discussed the success of the agreement and future collaboration.

Border Force Director General, Phil Douglas said:

Border Force works tirelessly to protect and strengthen our borders, by preventing the smuggling of cannabis and other illegal items into the UK. Our work doesn’t stop at the border – we work internationally with our partners to prevent illicit goods from even reaching the UK.

We are using advanced intelligence more than ever before and last year we made a record number of drug seizures, including the highest harm substances. Border Force remains fully committed to securing our borders and keeping our streets safe.

In parallel with its cooperation with the UK on cannabis, Thai customs have introduced stricter screening measures at the border. This has resulted in over 800 cannabis smugglers being intercepted between October 2024 and March 2025, with over 9 tonnes of cannabis seized.

Both the UK and Thailand are taking a zero-tolerance approach on criminal gangs who are exploiting vulnerable people to smuggle drugs across the UK border on their behalf. Individuals who are caught smuggling drugs will be arrested and face the full force of the law.

Alex Murray, NCA Director of threat leadership, said:

The NCA continues to work with partners at home and abroad to target high-risk routes, seize shipments of drugs and disrupt the OCGs involved, denying them profits.

We have been working well with the Thai authorities who are keen to intervene. Couriers should think very carefully about agreeing to smuggle cannabis. There are life-changing consequences. Crime groups can be very persuasive but the risk of getting caught is very high and simply not worth it.

Border Force is committed to delivering the government’s Plan for Change, Safer Streets mission by stopping illegal drugs from entering our country and destroying lives.

In the year ending March 2024, Border Force and the police seized over 119 tonnes of illegal drugs, with a street value of £3 billion, a 52% increase from the year prior, in the highest number of seizures on record.

Charlotte Prescott, Director of Customs and International Policy at Royal Mail said:

Collaboration between government agencies and postal bodies is essential. We have a very strong partnership with Border Force and are proud to work alongside our Border Force colleagues, assisting their work in identifying restricted and prohibited items, and helping to tackle this issue – this relationship has been recognised as one of the best internationally.

The press release issued by the Home Office on 25 April 2025.

Even tougher action to hold tech platforms to account for failing to protect children from harmful knife crime content online, the government has announced.

As part of the Plan for Change, tougher sanctions will be brought in to combat the unacceptable content circulating online that advertises deadly and illegal knives and other offensive weapons to young people – or which glorifies or incites violence.

The government has already announced a significant fine of up to £10,000 for individual tech bosses whose platforms fail to remove this content within 48 hours following a police warning. Following significant consultation with the Coalition to Tackle Knife Crime, the government is going even further with an additional fine of up to £60,000 to be paid by the company. This means tech platforms and their executives could collectively face up to £70,000 in fines for every post relating to knife crime they fail to remove.

A greater range of online platforms will be liable under these new laws to also include online search engines as well as social media platforms and marketplaces, to capture all online providers which might currently be failing to remove content.

The move bolsters further measures set out yesterday by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, and Ofcom, to protect children from a broad spectrum of harmful online content including pornography, suicide and self-harm under the Online Safety Act.  The laws will be some of the most comprehensive online safety protections in the world and mean platforms must protect children from content including suicide, self-harm, and pornography by taking steps such as introducing age checks like photo ID matching or facial age estimation and filtering out harmful content from algorithms.

Crime and Policing Minister, Dame Diana Johnson said:

The kind of content that young people scroll through every day online is sickening and I will not accept any notion that restricting access to this harmful material is too difficult.

Our children need more from us. That is why we are now going further than ever to hold to account the tech companies who are not doing enough to safeguard young people from content which incites violence, particularly in young boys.

Curbing the impact of this kind of content will be key for our mission to halve knife crime, but more widely our Plan for Change across government to do more protect young people from damaging and dangerous content.

As previously announced, the Home Office will introduce a new system to be carried out by a new policing unit backed by £1.75 million of funding to tackle the sale of knives online. This will have a national capability and be run by the National Police Chiefs’ Council. They will be responsible for issuing Content Removal Notices which inform the tech platform of illegal content, giving them a 48 hour window in which they must remove it.

Failure to comply will now result in a Civil Penalty Notice rather than taking the company to civil court, which include the respective fines for both executives and the wider company. This will mean sanctions can be inflicted much more quickly and is the same penalty that an employer may receive for employing an illegal worker to reflect the vital importance of removing harmful knife related content.

Patrick Green CEO of The Ben Kinsella Trust said:

The portrayal of knife crime on social media has significantly hindered efforts to reduce it. Beyond merely normalising, glamorising, and desensitising young people to violence, it has often provided an illegal avenue for purchasing knives without adequate safeguards, such as proper age verification.

Social media companies and their executives have repeatedly failed to address these issues. Therefore, I welcome today’s announcement from the government to take decisive action and hold these executives accountable.

I also thank the government for listening to the Coalition to Tackle Knife Crime and for extending these sanctions to include social media companies, who have a responsibility to keep young people safe on their platforms.

These sanctions are part of a range of measures being introduced by this government in its mission to halve knife crime in a decade. These include:

• banning zombie-style knives and ninja swords, with a nationwide surrender scheme launching in July
• introducing stronger 2-step verification for online retailers selling knives online and banning delivery of weapons to alternative addresses that don’t match the buyer
• requirement for online retailers to report any bulk or suspicious-looking purchases of knives to the police
• launching a consultation in spring on the introduction of a licensing scheme for retailers who wish to sell knives
• increasing prison sentences for selling weapons to under 18s from 6 months to 2 years
• introducing a new offence for possessing a weapon with intent for violence with a prison sentence of up to 4 years

The sanctions for tech platforms will be introduced via an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill which was tabled on 24 April for committee stage.