Law enforcement activity has been a key factor in bringing down the number of people transported to the UK illegally by small boat, according to a new assessment issued by the National Crime Agency.

Based on analysis of the overall intelligence picture for the first six months of 2026, drawn from the NCA itself, Home Office Intelligence and other domestic and overseas partners, the assessment says that supply chain constraints on boats and engines used in crossings has been a key factor impacting the organised crime groups involved.

Activity targeting people smugglers themselves as well as the French authorities’ prevention of launches on the beaches has also played an important role.

The available evidence suggests that fluctuating demand has been a factor in a reduced requirement for crossings compared to previous years.

Overall, the number of people arriving in the UK by small boat in the first half of 2026 was down by 41 per cent, with the number of boats down by almost half, at 47 per cent, compared to 2025.

The falls follow a significant increase in arrests and seizures made by the NCA and law enforcement partners.

In the year to April 2026 arrests linked to organised immigration crime involving the NCA increased by more than 55 percent.

The NCA has worked with international partners to have more than 1,600 boats or engines seized since late 2023, denying their use to people smuggling networks. The wholesale cost of boats and engines has gone up as a result.

A number of key suppliers have also been targeted, including Turkish national Adem Savas who is thought to have supplied equipment used in around half of all crossings in 2023. Savas was jailed in Belgium in January.

Meanwhile the Agency has also worked with social media networks to have more than 40,000 posts pages or accounts linked to immigration crime removed from platforms.

NCA Director General Operations Rob Jones said:

“The NCA is devoting more resource to tackling organised immigration crime than ever before, and that is bringing results.

“Alongside our partners on both sides of the Channel we are making it more difficult and costlier for people smuggling networks to source equipment, more difficult to get it to the beaches and in the water, more difficult to communicate with potential customers, and more likely smugglers will be confronted by law enforcement.

“However, we are not complacent, and the job is by no means done. We must continue to keep up the pressure on these criminal gangs, as they continue to put lives at risk in the Channel.

“Our message to the gangs is clear – moving people in small boats and supplying equipment gets riskier for you by the day, and we will not stop in our pursuit of you, wherever you are and wherever you operate.”

Border Security Commander, Duncan Capps CBE, said:

"By boosting enforcement action, targeting the supply of small boat equipment and putting more smugglers behind bars, we are making it harder for the criminal gangs to operate.

“But we know there is still more to be done. Through every arm of our Command, we will work relentlessly to prevent these dangerous and illegal crossings."

15 September 2026