Migrants could be prosecuted for helping to launch boats, under new plans (Image: Getty)
Migrants could be prosecuted for helping people into small boats, the Daily Express understands.
The Home Office is considering more ways to prosecute asylum seekers in a bid to deter them from crossing the Channel.
This includes those helping carry boats into the water and directing migrants on the beaches, it is understood.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper will on Thursday unveil the Government’s new Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill.
Yvette Cooper will unveil Labour’s plan to end the Channel migrant crisis (Image: Getty)
And Labour’s plan to smash the gangs relies on driving up the price for smugglers, it is understood.
National Crime Agency modelling has predicted that if crossings reach £10,000, it will lead to fewer migrants crossing the Channel, this newspaper has been told.
This will depend on more smugglers being arrested, and the organised crime gangs struggling to access boats or engines.
Disruptions last year led to the price surging fourfold to £6,000 amid a shortage of engines. The average crossings range between £1,500 and £3,000.
Ms Cooper will give Border Force officers counter-terror style powers to stop and search people at ports and borders if they are suspected of being a smuggler.
And migrant smugglers could be hit with travel bans and have their bank accounts frozen before they are convicted, under the new plans.
The Home Office is introducing Interim Serious Crime Prevention Orders to allow the National Crime Agency to apply for travel restrictions, to ban smugglers from using mobile phones or laptops, introduce social media bans, or ban them from meeting other members of their gangs.
The orders are designed to give investigators time to build a case against the suspects while protecting the public from further potential offences.
Home Office sources have previously insisted many of the gangs have members in the UK, who help “facilitate crossings” and collect payments for spaces on a dinghy.
The new orders could help the National Crime Agency to “squeeze” the smuggling gangs, insiders believe.
It will also be crucial in hindering gangs who prosecutors are struggling to gather enough evidence on to haul them before judges.
Travel restrictions, in particular, are seen as a significant new weapon to “smash the gangs”.
Ms Cooper is prioritising hunting the smuggling gangs – particularly the Kurdish organised crime networks that control many of the crossing routes – to end the crisis.
The Home Secretary also believes greater cooperation with European nations will allow police to disrupt the smugglers’ supply chains and seize more boats and engines.
The UK has also secured a new deal with Iraq to return small boat arrivals and go after the smuggling kingpins.
Baghdad has committed to helping more deportations by providing more identity documents for suspected Iraqi nationals.
Britain will also pay Iraq to boost its capacity for dealing with migrants returning to the country as well as for programmes to help returnees reintegrate into society.
The Daily Express in August revealed how more British officers and intelligence specialists will be based in Iraq to snare smuggling kingpins.
The Home Office wants to “go after” the criminal networks “at source” and lead international operations.
Iraqi-Kurdish smuggling gangs control most of the beaches and camps in Northern France, it is understood, meaning officials want to ramp up National Crime Agency operations in the smugglers’ home towns.
Iraqi-Kurdish gangs control migrant smuggling operations from Calais to Dunkirk, this newspaper understands, with territory split up according to where the criminals are from, such as Erbil, Sulaimaniya, Ranya and Sharazoor.
Criminals from Ranya are said to control a large part of the territory between Calais and Dunkirk.