24-06-2025
Labour plan to 'smash the gangs' and end asylum hotels will FAIL, borders watchdog warns
The borders watchdog has said he is 'not convinced' Labour 's plan to 'smash the gangs' will end the Channel crisis, and predicted ministers will fail to end use of asylum hotels by end of this Parliament.
Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration David Bolt said he had written to ministers to express his doubts about the plan.
Labour scrapped the previous Tory government's Rwanda asylum scheme within days of taking office last July and said they would tackle small boats by increasing law enforcement action against people traffickers.
But Mr Bolt told a House of Lords committee today: 'I did write to ministers to say that I wasn't convinced that smashing the gangs was the right way of thinking about things.
'It did seem to me that the challenge was to change the 'risk/reward ratio' for those people that are involved in organised immigration crime, and that is really quite a difficult thing to achieve because it's relatively low cost, relatively low risk for the perpetrators and highly profitable.
'So I'm not sure I feel very optimistic about the ability to smash the gangs.
'In any event, with serious organised crime the best can do is deflect it to something else which you are less concerned about rather than expect to eradicate it.'
Mr Bolt was formerly responsible for tackling organised immigration crime at the Serious Organised Crime Agency, the forerunner to the National Crime Agency.
Pointing to the availability of illegal work in Britain, he said: 'There is more that needs to be done in relation to the UK end of this problem.'
On Labour's pledge to end use of asylum hotels by July 2029, Mr Bolt said numbers of asylum seekers are 'really challenging' and highlighted a national shortage of alternative housing stock.
'I don't think it will be achievable, frankly,' he told peers.
'There are very large numbers and it's very hard to see how they will be reduced significantly even over the length of the parliament.'
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has said she will end the use of hotels by the end of the Parliament in 2029.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves said in her spending review two weeks ago that cutting small boat crossings – along with building new government-owned asylum accommodation – would save £1billion a year.
Latest Home Office figures show there are about 32,000 asylum seekers in hotels in the UK.
Peers on the justice and home affairs committee also heard that 'soft' criteria are being applied by the Home Office's new digital borders system and only 'small numbers' of foreign nationals are being refused entry.
Mr Bolt raised concerns about the Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) scheme – which gives non-visa nationals permission to enter the UK if they complete a simple electronic form and pay a small fee.
He said the inspectorate may need to look at 'whether there are individuals who pose some risk who should not be granted an ETA in the first place'.
