The 609 arrests, compared to 352 in January 2024, were made during visits to 800 premises including nail bars, restaurants, car washes and convenience stores, a government statement said.
Home secretary Yvette Cooper said employers had for too long been able to "exploit illegal migrants and too many people have been able to arrive and work illegally with no enforcement action ever taken". (Photo: Getty Images)
UK immigration enforcement teams made more than 600 arrests in January, a 73 per cent increase on the same period a year ago, as part of the Labour government's plan to tackle undocumented migration and people smuggling gangs, officials said on Monday (10).
The 609 arrests, compared to 352 in January 2024, were made during visits to 800 premises including nail bars, restaurants, car washes and convenience stores, a government statement said.
On taking office last year Labour prime minister Keir Starmer immediately scrapped his Conservative predecessor Rishi Sunak's plan to deter undocumented migration to the UK by deporting new arrivals to Rwanda.
Instead, he pledged to "smash the gangs" to bring the numbers down.
Home secretary Yvette Cooper said employers had for too long been able to "exploit illegal migrants and too many people have been able to arrive and work illegally with no enforcement action ever taken".
"We are boosting enforcement to record levels alongside tough new legislation to smash the criminal gangs that undermine our border security and who have been getting away with it for far too long," she said.
Undocumented migration by people who take small, perilously unsafe boats across the English Channel from northern France to southern England was a major issue at last July's general election which Labour won.
Regular migration, which is currently running at historically high levels, estimated at 728,000 for the year to June 2024, was also a hot button issue at the polls.
Starmer needs to reduce both legal and undocumented migration to fend off growing support for Nigel Farage's anti-immigration Reform UK party, which won roughly four million votes during the July 4 poll - an unprecedented haul for a far-right party.
Some 36,816 people were detected in the Channel in 2024, a 25 per cent increase from the 29,437 who arrived in 2023, provisional figures from the Home Office showed.
As part of his plan to reduce undocumented migration, Starmer has also set up a new Border Security Command and strengthened cooperation with European partners, including Europol.
Britain has signed joint action plans with Germany and Iraq aimed at tackling the smuggling gangs. They build on earlier agreements signed under the previous Conservative government, including with France and Albania.
The government also points to an increase in the return of irregular migrants to their countries of origin, the highest since 2017.
Its new Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill is designed to give law enforcement officials "counter-terror style powers" to break up gangs bringing irregular migrants across the Channel.
A nurse walks through an alley at the Government Medical College, where children were admitted after consuming Coldrif cough syrup, which has been linked to the deaths of multiple children, in Nagpur, India, October 8, 2025. (Photo: Reuters)
INDIAN police have arrested the owner of a pharmaceutical company after a cough syrup made at his plant was linked to the deaths of at least 21 children, officials said on Thursday.
Most of the children, all under the age of five, died in Madhya Pradesh over the past month after being prescribed the syrup, which was found to be contaminated with a toxic substance.
Cough syrups manufactured in India have come under global scrutiny in recent years following deaths in several countries linked to their consumption. The incidents have affected India’s reputation as the world’s third-largest producer of drugs and pharmaceuticals by volume.
G. Ranganathan, 75, was arrested early on Thursday at his home in Chennai by police teams from Chennai and Madhya Pradesh.
He was charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder and adulteration of drugs, police sources told AFP and Indian media reported.
The syrup, sold under the brand name Coldrif, was manufactured by Sresan Pharma at a unit in Tamil Nadu.
The Indian health ministry said on Saturday that tests on samples showed contamination with diethylene glycol (DEG), a toxic chemical used in industrial solvents that can be fatal even in small quantities.
Authorities in Madhya Pradesh and several other states have banned the product.
Indian media reported that the World Health Organization had asked Indian officials for clarification on whether the contaminated syrup had been exported to other countries.
In 2022, more than 70 children died in Gambia from acute kidney failure after consuming a cough syrup imported from India.
Between 2022 and 2023, 68 children in Uzbekistan died after consuming another contaminated syrup made in India.
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