UK empowers authorities to seize phones, SIM cards from illegal migrants

Mobile phones and hidden SIM cards can be seized from migrants arriving illegally in the UK on small boats across the English Channel under new powers enforced from Monday.

Law enforcement agencies can now seize electronic devices like mobile phones and SIM cards from illegal migrants without needing to arrest them. This is intended to help them gather intelligence to track down and arrest people smugglers.

The UK Home Office said the "game changing" new criminal offences will help authorities intercept organised criminals faster and enable police to arrest people smugglers fuelling illegal migration.

"We promised to restore order and control to our borders which means taking on the people smuggling networks behind this deadly trade," said Alex Norris, UK's minister for border security and asylum.

"That is exactly why we are implementing robust new laws with powerful offences to intercept, disrupt and dismantle these vile gangs faster than ever before and cut off their supply chains."

"These operational measures sit alongside sweeping reforms to the system, to make it less attractive for migrants to come here illegally and remove and deport people faster," he said.

Phone seizures began at a short-term holding facility of migrants at Manston in Kent, south-east England, with technology on site enabled to download material from the seized devices.

The Crime Agency (NCA), police and other Immigration Enforcement officers can now make such seizures in a range of settings, including during property or vehicle searches and raids.

Officers can also demand illegal migrants remove an outer coat, jacket or gloves, and conduct searches inside their mouth for a hidden SIM card.

"Criminal smuggling gangs facilitating illegal migration do not care if people live or die. Since the Border Security Command launched, nearly 4,000 disruptions against these networks have taken place, from seizing cash to convictions of major kingpins," said UK Border Security Commander Martin Hewitt.

"Today marks a key moment in allowing us to go even further, with new tools and legal backing to bear down on these vile gangs, secure our borders and save lives," he said.

With the UK's Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act now in force, officials can also charge suspects for moving, storing or supplying items like boat engines, used to bring migrants illegally to the UK, with offenders facing 14 years behind bars.

Smugglers downloading, researching and recording information to facilitate illegal migration will also face up to five years imprisonment.

This could include downloading a map on where to launch a small boat to avoid detection or researching the best places to buy equipment to construct a small boat.

"The new laws also make it a criminal offence to import, manufacture or supply compartments that modify a vehicle, like fake floors for a van or a lorry to hide migrants underneath – offenders could receive up to five years in prison," the Home Office said.

"Like the approach taken by counter-terrorism police, these offences mean law enforcement can intercept a gang network's operation and strike at an earlier stage than previously possible, to catch and arrest smugglers before lives are put at risk," it said.

The NCA believes the new powers could help speed up investigations in cases where it might previously have taken months or even years to prove offences.

It follows UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood's announcement of sweeping reforms to the UK’s asylum system in November last year.

According to official statistics, arrests, convictions and seizures of criminal cash and assets were up 33 per cent in the year ending September 2025 – compared to the year before.

The Labour Party government also claims it have deported 50,000 people with no legal right to be in the UK since coming into power in July 2024.

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